Information Sheet

 

 

R         Nelson family.

252                  Collection, 1879‑1973.

                                    Five volumes, eight folders, and 104 photographs.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are scrapbooks, miscellaneous papers, and photographs of the Nelson family of Leba­non, Laclede County, Missouri.  Absolom, Arthur T., and Frank R. Nelson operated a com­mer­cial ap­ple orchard and a tavern and motel along U.S. Highway 66.  Arthur T. Nelson served on various Missouri state commissions and boards.  The photographs in the collection have been copied on 35mm negatives and slides.

 

Absolom Nelson (1830‑1901) was a native of Oneida County, New York, engaged in the lumber and grain trade at Buffalo.  He was selected in 1882 as agent and resident manager of the Ozark Plateau Land Company, a group of Buffalo investors who owned about 100,000 acres of land in Laclede, Camden, Dallas and Webster counties in Missouri.  Nelson came to Lebanon, Missouri, to direct the company’s land sales program.  He promoted the area for immi­gration and encouraged agricultural improve­ments, particularly in fruit‑growing.  He champi­oned apple or­chards for the area, and was himself owner of a 120‑acre farm and orchard on the eastern edge of Lebanon.  Nelson was instrumental in the organizations of several Laclede County agricultural so­cieties, and was an officer of the Missouri State Horticultural Society and Missouri Board of Agri­culture.  Apple orchards became a big business for several years as a result of his promotions in the area.  Nelson maintained a cooperage on his property which produced 1,000 barrels a day to meet the demands for shipping apples.  Produce from Nelson’s Apple House was exhibited widely and won many premiums in regional, state, and national competitions.

 

When Nelson died in 1901, his son, Arthur T. (1864‑1936), assumed the management of his father’s enterprises.  While continuing the pros­perous apple business, Nelson also ac­cepted sev­eral state appointments from Republican governors.  Beginning in 1901, he served on the Mis­souri State Board of Agriculture, the State Fair Board, the Penal Com­mission, Marketing Com­mission, and Highway Commission.  Even before his appointment to the latter, in 1933, Nelson had been interested in the movement to improve Missouri’s roads.  In 1926, he donated land to the state for the construction of U.S. Highway 66, which bisected his property. He capital­ized on the location by building the Nelson Tavern and Service Station in 1931. Prospering from increas­ing high­way traffic, Nelson planned and built in 1934 the “Dream Vil­lage,” a group of a dozen tourist cabins built of native stone.  Extensive landscaping sur­rounded the complex, which was centered around a large pool and brightly‑lit “Electrical Fountain.”

 

Arthur T. Nelson died in 1936, leaving his son, Frank R. Nelson, to manage the prop­erties.  He operated them until 1944, when they were leased.  In 1958 the property was sold and the buildings razed for con­struction of a supermarket.  Nelson and his wife, the former Dorothy Kent, were active participants in many area civic and charitable organi­zations. They were hon­ored in 1964 for their gift of a forty‑acre tract for construction of the Laclede County Community Center.

 

The Nelson family papers consist primarily of scrapbooks and photo­graphs detailing the en­terprises and activities of family members. Along with biographical information, the ap­ple‑growing business, the state appointments of Arthur T. Nelson, the “Dream Village,” and the history of La­clede County are the main themes of the material.  The scrap­books include newspa­per clippings, telegrams, occasional pieces of correspondence, business cards, and other memora­bilia.  The vol­umes are not indexed, but are generally in chronological order.  A guide to selected contents pre­cedes each volume.

 

The foldered materials include several pieces of promotional items concerning Laclede County.  There are advertising brochures distributed by the Ozark Plateau Land Com­pany and the Gasconade Hotel, ca. 1890; a list of premiums offered by the Lebanon Street Fair, 1904, and a Chamber of Commerce publication on Lebanon, 1928.

 

Views from the large Nelson family photograph collection have been copied on 35mm black and white negatives.  Color postcard views are available on color slides.  Many photo­graphs are included of the apple orchards, packing house, and cooperage operated by the Nel­sons, and of the later development on U.S. Route 66, the Nelson Tavern, and the “Dream Vil­lage.”  Views from Laclede County of general interest include photographs of Bennett Spring, the funeral procession of Richard Parks “Silver Dick” Bland, and a fatal derailment on the Frisco Railway near Leba­non, 1914.

 

 

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