Bios: James A. Nelson; Drew County, AR., then Webster Par., Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: Aug. 2001



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===James H. Nelson president of the Webster Parish police jury, is a 
Louisiana citizen of unusual talent and accomplishments, one who has 
successfully combined the prosecution of large business affairs with 
public services that have meant much to his community and parish.Mr. Nelson was born in Drew County, Arkansas, in 1881, but since 
infancy has lived in Louisiana.  His father, T. D. Nelson, was for 
many years engaged in railroad contracting, and had contracts for 
building the grade of the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railway 
into North Louisiana.  During the progress of this work the family 
lived at Arcadia, afterwards at Ruston, Monroe and Dubach.In all these localities James Harvey Nelson spent some portion of his 
childhood.  He attended school at Little Rock, and since 1911 has been 
a resident and business man of Minden.  He built and for ten years 
operated a large stave mill at Sibley, this business being carried 
on under the name of the Delta Stave Company.  Mr. Nelson for many 
years has figured prominently in the state industry of the state.  He 
sold the plant of the Delta Stave Company in January, 1924, but still 
operates a country stave mill near Athens in Claiborne Parish.  Early 
in 1924 he acquired a partnership interest in the Webb Hardware & 
Furniture Company of Minden, and is vice president and general manager 
of what is one of the most successful business enterprises of the city.  
He is also president of the Benton Lumber Company, operating a lumber 
mill at Benton in Bossier Parish, and is a director of the Bank of 
Minden, the city's oldest and strongest bank.Intermingled with these business activities have been many positions 
of trust in public affairs and civic and church movements.  He is 
an elder in the First Presbyterian Church, is chairman of the laymen's 
organization of the Presbytery and chairman of the Sunday School 
committee of the Presbytery, and served one year as president of the 
Louisiana State Sunday School Association.  He is president of the 
Retail Merchants' Association at Minden, and was elected a member of 
the police jury of Webster Parish in 1920, and since 1922 has been 
president of that body, which has the general fiscal control of 
affairs in the parish.  Mr. Nelson is a thirty-second degree Scottish 
Rite Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner.He married Miss Olive Brown, of Fordyce, Arkansas.  Her father, 
Rev. J. M. Brown, was a prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church 
in Arkansas.  The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are:  Helen,  
James,  Marian,  Robert and  Susan.A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 181, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and 
New York, 1925.