Cabell County, West Virginia Biography of C. PAUL NELSON This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 569 Cabell C. PAUL NELSON is a member of the firm of Robson & Nelson, real estate, coal and oil lands, at Huntington. Mr. Nelson is a civil engineer by profession, and had a wide and successful experience in that work for a number of years, both in West Virginia and elsewhere. He was born at Brentsville in Prince William County, Virginia, December 21, 1876. This is an old and honored family name in Prince William County, where his grand- father, Thomas Nelson, at one time owned a large planta- tion and worked it with slave labor. Edwin Nelson, father of C. Paul Nelson, wag born in Prince William County July 5, 1831, and remained a resident of that county all his life. He was a Confederate soldier, enlisting in the Prince William County Cavalry and serving until the final sur- render. From the close of the war, by repeated re-elections and without any opposition to his candidacy, he served as clerk of the courts of his county until his death on February 12, 1911. He died at Manassas. He was a stanch democrat and an active member of the Primitive Baptist Church. He married Bettie Weed on, who was born in Prince William County October 14, 1837, and who died at Manassas Feb- ruary 22, 1911. Of their five children C. Paul is the youngest. Elizabeth Weedon, the oldest, is the wife of Austin O. Weedon, an attorney and banker at Warren- ton, Virginia. John H. Nelson is an attorney at Washing- ton, D. C. James E. also lives at Washington and is in the service of the Government. Effie Lee is the wife of Albert Speiden, a resident of Manassas, Virginia, while he is a member of the firm Speiden & Speiden, architects, at Wash- ington. C. Paul Nelson attended the public schools of his native county, also went to school at Baltimore, and graduated in 1898 from the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia. For one year he taught school in his home county, for nine months was connected with the Lewis Nixon Shipyard Company at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and in October, 1899, first came to West Virginia, at Marling- ton in Pocahontas County, as a civil engineer in the serv- ice of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company. He was on this road's staff of civil engineers until 1901, when he went west and practiced as a civil engineer at El Reno, Oklahoma, a year, and other engineering work employed him over considerable areas of Texas and Arkansas. Re- turning to West Virginia in 1904, he located at Charleston and resumed his service as an engineer with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, remaining until 1907. Some of his duties in this position took him into Kentucky. In 1908 Mr. Nel- son organized the Nelson Transfer Company of Charleston, and served as its president until 1911. In that year he became associated with H. A. Robson, whose record is given elsewhere, in the buying and selling of real estate, coal and oil lands. Mr. Nelson's headquarters were at Washington, D. C., until 1916, in which year the office of the firm was established at Huntington and is in the Rob- son-Prichard Building. Besides his extensive connections as a member of this firm Mr. Nelson is also a director of the Huntington Banking and Trust Company. He is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M., Huntington Com- mandery No. 9, K. T., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is a member of the Guyandotte Club and the Guyan Country Club, both at Huntington. April 26, 1906, at Charleston, Mr. Nelson married Miss Mary Elizabeth Robson, daughter of H. A. Robson. She finished her education in the Lewisburg Seminary of this state. The four children born to their marriage are- Betty Jane, born April 5, 1907; Edwin Robson, born May- 15, 1908; Mary Elizabeth, born June 17, 1909; James Houghton, born October 12, 1910.