Aaron H. Nelson
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
May be copied for non-profit purposes.
USGENWEB Montana Archives

Aaron H. Nelson, senior member of the law firm of Nelson 
and Settles, Helena, Montana, was born in Richmond 
Virginia, August 4, 1838. Aaron H. Nelson traces his 
paternal ancestry back to William Nelson of Plymouth 
England, who, with his wife Martha, nee Foard, came 
to this country in 1621 in the ship Fortune. His great-
great-grandson, Thomas Nelson of Middleborough, 
Massachusetts, had three sons--Job, Thomas and 
Stephen,--the first a lawyer, the second a doctor 
and the third a Baptist minister. Stephen was the 
father of William F. Nelson, who was the father of 
the subject of this sketch. William F. Nelson, after 
being graduated at Brown University and Newton 
Theological Seminary was ordained a Baptist minister 
and became one of the professors in the Baptist 
College at Richmond Virginia. In 1835 he married 
Susannah Hayden, a native of Eastport, Maine and a 
direct descendant of that John Alden who has been 
so beautifully immortalized by Longfellow in his 
"Courtship of Miles Standish."William F. Nelson and 
Susannah Hayden had two children, a son and a 
daughter, the former, Aaron H., being the only 
survivor the family , the father having died in 
1875 at the age of sixty-nine years, the mother 
in 1877 at the age of sixty-four years and the 
sister, Emma G., in 1888 at the age of forty-
eight years.Aaron H. Nelson prepared for college 
at the academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts and 
in 1854 entered Amherst College but in his 
sophomore year he removed to Brown University, 
Providence, Rhode Island where he was graduated 
with the degree of M.A. in the class of 1858.In 
1860 he was admitted to the bar at Hastings, 
Minnesota but in 1863 entered the United States 
navy as Paymaster, serving continuously in that 
capacity through the war of the Rebellion and 
until January 1, 1872, when he resigned his 
commission. From that time until 1880 he was 
engaged in business in New Orleans. In 1881 he 
entered the General Land Office at Washington 
District of Columbia and there remained eight 
years. In 1889 he was admitted to practice in 
the Supreme Court of the United States and in 
June of that year resigned his position in the 
Land Office and removed to Montana, where he 
has since been engaged in the practice of his 
profession, making land and mining law a specialty.
October 24, 1872 Mr. Nelson married Miss Anna L. 
Berry, a native of Massachusetts and a daughter 
of Seth and Mary (Simpson) Berry of Bangor Maine. 
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson had four children, two of 
whom are living, Jessie Louisa and Harold Hayden. 
Mrs. Nelson died at Helena Montana, November 21, 
1891.

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