CHARLES H. NELSON
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 639
Boone

While he is yet numbered among
the young men of Boone County, Charles H. Nelson, county
clerk and good business man, has already had a wide and
varied experience and brought to his office habits of industry,
accuracy and dependability which are enabling him to give
a service that is receiving high commendation from all who
do business with his office. He is a native son of the county,
having been born at Drody Creek, Boone County, January
2, 1891. His father, J. G. Nelson, was born in West Vir-
ginia, but his father was a North Carolinian, of English
descent. J. G. Nelson is a farmer and one of the important
men in his business and for years has been a member of
the Knights of Pythias. The mother of Charles H. Nelson,
Mrs. Frances (McCormick) Nelson, was born in West Vir-
ginia. She was the daughter of James and Eliza Harless
McCormick.

Charles H. Nelson attended the common schools of Boone
County, and then acquired the fundamentals of business by
taking a course in the Capital City Commercial College in
1912. He then began his timber operations, logging on
Hughes Creek, Kanawha County, but after nine months in
that locality went to Indian Creek, Boone County, and was
there engaged in logging timber for about a year. For the
subsequent three months he acted as clerk in a general
store at Indian Creek, when he was made manager of the
store and pay roll clerk for the Hickory Ash Coal Com-
pany, with which he remained for four years, his connection
with this concern only terminating when the business was
sold to the Sterling Colleries Company. Mr. Nelson re-
mained with the last-named corporation for three and
one-half years, and with the new owners until the
Sterling Colleries Company sold to the Kanawha Consoli-
dated Corporation.  Two months later, however, he re-
signed in order to take charge of his campaign for the
office of county clerk as the republican nominee, to which
he was elected in November, 1920, and on January 1, 1921,
he entered upon the duties of the office. During the war
he was held with the coal company in charge of the store
and pay roll.

On November 20, 1912, Mr. Nelson married at Peytona,
Boone County, Miss Jessie Javins, a daughter of S. M. and
Minnie (Elkins) Javins, all of whom were born in West
Virginia. Mr. Javins is in the timber business.  The
Elkins family is an old and noted one in West Virginian
history. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have one daughter, Helen
E. They are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. Well-known in Masonry, Mr. Nelson has
been advanced in his fraternity to the eighteenth Scottish
Rite. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias. The
record of Mr. Nelson's life shows that he has won his suc-
cessive advancements because he has earned them, and not
on account of outside influence. He was named by his party
as its choice for county clerk on account of his reputation
for fidelity and painstaking ability.  The people of the
county elected him because they had faith in his pre-election
promises, and he has already proven that he is going to live
up to the spirit as well as the letter of them. As above
stated, Mr. Nelson is still a young man, and many years
stretch out before him, and, judging the future by the light
of the past, he has not yet reached his goal, but may be
confidently expected to win much higher honors from his
constituents.