WILLIAM W. NELSON, M. D., has for thirty years been successfully engaged in the practice of medicine in this community. His home is in Birmingham. He was born on November 30, 1834, in Wayne County, Ohio, and is a son of William and Elizabeth (Wilson) Nelson. His father was born in Mercer County, Pa., December 4, 1790, and was descended from Irish ancestry. He Served in the War of 1812, and in Pennsylvania, he married Miss Elizabeth Wilson, who was born in Ireland, May 25, 1791, and who, in her childhood accompanied her parents to this country and located in Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage they removed in 1817, to Wayne County, Ohio, near Rowsburg, where Mr. Nelson engaged in farming until 1836, when he removed to Richland County, (now Ashland) and located on a farm near Savannah until 1845, when he traded his land in that locality for a tract in Washington Township, Van Buren County, Iowa, to which he then removed. He was a Whig, afterward an Abolitionist and in turn became a Republican. Both he and his wife were members of the Associate Presbyterian Church, but afterward joined the United Presbyterian. He died September 24, 1860, and Mrs. Nelson passed away on the 7th of October, 1858. In their family were nine children, of whom seven lived to be adults, while three are yet living — Hugh, a farmer of Van Buren County; Ann, widow of Joseph Dawson, of Washington County, Iowa, and the Doctor.
Our subject is the youngest of the family. Having attended the district schools, he was not content to consider his education then finished but through his own resources acquired the means by which he was enabled to attend Washington College for two years. His taste lay in the line of medical practice and in 1857, he went to Wooster, Ohio, where he read medicine with Drs. Day & Wilson. During the winter of 1858-9, he attended a course of lectures in the medical department of the Iowa State University at Keokuk, and the following year completed a course of study in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, Pa., where he graduated March 12, 1860, although he has continued a student up to the present time, keeping himself well informed on all matters pertaining to the profession, its discoveries and the advancement made in the science.
Soon after his graduation, Dr. Nelson was united in marriage on March 20, 1860, with Miss Almira Matthews, a native of Lawrence County, Pa., born July 22, 1839. Immediately after he returned with his bride to Van Buren County, locating in Pierceville, in the summer of 1860, where they began their domestic life. On the 19th of August, 1862, he was commissioned by Gov. Kirkwood as First Assistant Surgeon ,of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, and mustered into service by Lieut. Charles J. Ball of the Thirteenth Infantry, United States mustering officer. September 14, 1862, at Keokuk. He joined his regiment at Iuka. Miss., but soon afterward was taken with malarial fever and lay in the general hospital at Corinth, Miss., some three weeks, suffering severely, and recovering, he then rejoined his regiment at Grand Junction, Tenn. In the spring of 1863, he was ordered to take charge of a smallpox hospital at Lake Province, La., by order of Gen. McPherson. After a month he was relieved and placed in charge of the Sixth Division Pioneer Corps, commanded by Capt. Davis, of the Thirty-second I1linois Infantry. Returning to his regiment in August, 1863, he had charge of the sick of the brigade when the regiments went on the march to Monroe, La. After a short sickness and an absence, on furlough, of twenty days, given by Gen. Grant at Vicksburg. he rejoined his regiment and had charge of two companies detached for duty at the arsenal near Vicksburg, and also had charge of a pioneer corps and engineer regiment commanded by Capt. John Wilson. He remained with the above command until the spring of 1864, when he was placed in charge of non-veterans and recruits of the Iowa Brigade, and had charge of this detachment until their respective commands joined them near Huntsville, Ala., when he was placed in charge of the Third Iowa Veteran Infantry, with which he remained until it was consolidated with the Second Veteran Infantry near Jones' Plantation, Ga., on Sherman's march to the sea. Thereafter, the Doctor rejoined his regiment and from December 22, 1864, until he was mustered out he was the only medical officer with the command. He participated in the battles of Corinth, Vicksburg, Atlanta, and Bentonsville [sic], and the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., May 24, 1865, and was mustered out with his regiment at Louisville, Ky., July 24, 1865, at the close of the war. In the fall of the same year, the Doctor located in Birmingham, where he has since been successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession, with the exception of 1874, when with his family he visited the Pacific coast in the pursuit of health and returned the following year. He has a good record as a physician and surgeon, as is indicated by a liberal patronage. He holds the office of Secretary of the United States Pension Examining Board, of his county, is a Republican in politics and the owner of two hundred and twenty acres of improved land. Unto himself and wife were horn seven children of whom two died in infancy. Those living are as follows: Meldon W., a farmer of Lick Creek Township, Van Buren County; Nettie X.; Minnie A., wife of Allen B. Adams, of Selma; Audley E. and Mary L., who are students at Parsons College. The family holds a high position in the social world and the Doctor has won a like enviable rank in the medical fraternity. In religious sentiment the Doctor and his wife are independent, and anti-sectarian.
Mrs. Nelson's grandfather, Jacob Matthews, was born in Maryland, in 1775. His ancestors were of Alsace, France, or of German descent. He married Miss Mary Boyl, who was born in Ireland, and their family consisted of three children, one son and two daughters. At an early day they moved to Lawrence County, Pa., and located on a farm near Edenburg. He served in the War of 1812, and died at the age of eighty-four. His only son, Phillip Matthews, Mrs. Nelson's father, married Miss Nancy Book, of the same county. Their family consisted of ten children, two sons and eight daughters. One son and two daughters died in childhood. The other son, George B. Matthews, Mrs. Nelson's remaining brother, served four years in the One Hundredth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. One sister died at maturity, and three still survive.
SOURCE: Portrait And Biographical Album Of Jefferson And Van Buren Counties, Iowa, Lake City Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, 1890, p. 365-6
