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Born: Sep­tem­ber 24, 1793, near Jones­bo­ro, Ten­nes­see.

Died: Oc­to­ber 17, 1844, near Quin­cy, Il­li­nois.

Buried: Oak­land Cem­e­te­ry, near Quin­cy, Il­li­nois.

Nelson grad­u­at­ed from Wash­ing­ton Coll­ege, Vir­gin­ia, in 1819, and earned his med­ic­al de­gree in Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, in 1812. Dur­ing the War of 1812 he served as a surgeon in a regiment from Kentucky, but in 1823, he gave up med­i­cine for the ministry. He was or­dained in 1825 at Rogersville, Tennessee. He pas­tored in Danville, Kentucky and Marion Coun­ty, Missouri, and held sev­er­al posts. He al­so found­ed two man­u­al la­bor col­leges, one at Green­fields, Marion Coun­ty, Mis­souri; and the other near Quin­cy, Il­li­nois (where he had moved due to op­po­si­tion to his anti-slav­ery views). He even­tu­al­ly be­came pres­i­dent of Pres­by­ter­i­an The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary at Quincy.