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OBITUARY
Posted 30 Jun 2009 by n2zhf
ALMERON NELSON died at Coudersport, September 26, 1896, of apoplexy, in the 80th year of his life.
Such is the record of one of our best citizens. The suddenness of his demise made the blow more cruel to the family and friends. He was stricken with apoplexy while walking along the street in Coudersport and lived but a few moments.
Was a son of Cephas and Eunice Nelson and was born in Putnam, Washington County, NY, January 15, 1817.
His mother was Eunice, daughter of Major Isaac Lyman.
Cephas Nelson moved to Lymansville in 1820. Had six children:
- Horatio Admiral, b. Oct. 23, 1806;
- Henry, b. March 10, 1808 (His children were
- Ford,
- Festus,
- Charles and
- Oscar);
- Charlotte, b. June 13, 1811, m. John Tompkins-went West;
- Lyman Nelson b. Dec. 14, 1812 m. Maria Hall, sister of Dennis Hall;
- Almeron Nelson b. Jan. 15, 1817,
m. first Henrietta McClelland, daughter of Wm. McClelland. They were married Aug. 27, 1844. She was b. Jan. 17, 1826-died Oct, 2, 1866. Almeron Nelson
m. second Elizabeth Ann Taggart, Nov 27, 1867. She was b. March 9, 1831, daughter of George and Sarah Ann (Goodrich) Taggart.
Almeron Nelson was a member of the Methodist Church and Eulalia Lodge, 342.
- Buried in Ladona.
Source: Early Obituaries of Potter County, PA
Copied from a book at the Potter County Historical Society with their permission
Transcribed by Sheri D. Graves
Newspaper Article
Posted 09 Apr 2012 by n2zhf
NELSON FAMILY - Held picnic at Lymansville at home of Hon. Almeron Nelson, it being the old homestead of the first Nelson family that settled in Potter County. About 200 guests were present.
Among them were Edwin and Lewis Lyman, sons of Isaac Lyman, the second settler in Potter County, and whose sister, Eulalia Lyman, born 1811, was the first white child born in Potter County, and named after Eulalia Keating, the daughter of the proprietor of the Keating estate, comprising a vast tract of land in the county, and after whom Eulalia Township was named. But the guests were mostly Nelsons, or descendants of the Nelsons, comprised in the four families that first settled at or near Lymansville. Of them we propose to write as giving a wonderful example of how communities have been formed and counties and states carved out of the wilderness and peopled by a hardy race of pioneers. More particularly of those of Scotch and Irish lineage to which the Nelsons belong, their grandfather, John Nelson, an Irishman, having in 1775 married a Scotch lass for a wife, and to this pair were born eleven children, of whom all lived to marry and raise large families. Could these descendants be traced, they would number thousands, the longevity of the Nelsons being remarkable.
Of the family of six children that settled at Lymansville in 1820, but two have died, and the combined age of the four brothers present on this occasion is 292 years. An aunt of the family, now living at Fort Ann, Washington County, NY, celebrated her 99th birthday on the 4th of July last.
Cephas Nelson, the father of Horatio, Henry, Charlotte, Lyman, James, and Almeron, all but two of whom are well known as now active citizens of the county, and were living participants in the rare enjoyments of the occasion, came to Lymansville in March, 1820. He brought his whole family of eight persons and all his household goods on a single two horse sleigh. The horses which had hauled in his family goods, proving unsuited to the work of clearing new land, were disposed of, and with a small yoke of steers, and with grub hoes, land was cleared, seeded, and sufficient grain raised for the year’s supply of food; and enough flax grown, which, with the wool from five sheep, when carded, spun, woven, and made up by the women, supplied the clothing.
Two years later, 1822, Silas Nelson settled at Lymansville. His family by his first wife, consisted of
- Horace, - George,
- Ira, - Lucinda,
- Sarah, - Cephas, and
- Leroy.
Of these, four were present on this occasion.
By his second wife, he had nine children, their names we did not learn, although a number of them were present.
Two sisters of Silas and Cephas Nelson, Annice Woodcock and Sally Rossman, settled with their husbands at or near Lymansville, a number of the descendants of whom were present.
Mr. John Nelson came to Lymansville in 1827, having three children when he came and four were born afterward. From these families enumerated above, sprang the 200 relatives at this picnic and there are at least 200 more scattered through almost every State and Territory in the Union, who were unable to attend.
The deed for the Lyman farm, in possession of Mr. Almeron Nelson, was recorded in the records of Lycoming County in 1821. Potter then was a part of Lycoming. Jurors drawn here for the Court often had to travel ninety miles to get to the place where it was held.
The country at the time the Lymans came, was a dense wilderness; its roads few, mere pathways cut through the forest, obstructed by stumps, roots, and stones, with creeks, swamps and sloughs, un-bridged and unfilled, and which the traveler must ford, wade, or pass around, the latter expedient impossible in many places owing to the roughness of the country. Over such roads the Nelsons came into the county. Over such roads they carried grain to mill to be ground into flour at Ceres, NY, twenty miles distant. And this was a great improvement upon the condition of things eleven years previous. When Mr. John Peet, as has been recorded in the history of the state, had to go to Jersey Shore to mill, and in doing so, had to cross Pine Creek 99 times, and consume two weeks of time in going and coming this 65 miles; his family living in the meantime on the milk of a cow and what vegetables they could get from the woods, and fish they could catch from the streams. Or the time when the father of John Burt, now residing in Roulet Township, the first male white child born in Potter county, ground his corn in a mortar improvised out of the stump of a tree, with a log for a pestle operated by a spring pole made from a sapling. Or when he became the first tanner in the county, cutting his bark fine with an axe, and steeping his hides in the tanning, held in a vat hollowed out of the trunk of a tree with the axe.
Mr. Nelson exhibited to his guests a few relics, preserved as mementos of his boyhood days, among which was a conch shell that was used to call the Nelsons to dinner more than eighty years. A steel yard that had determined his weight to be four pounds at birth, he now tips the scales at 225 pounds. There was a glass decanter that came in the first crate of crockery coming into Potter county brought from Philadelphia by a horse team as a part of the stock of the store of Harry Lyman, situated on Cephas Nelson’s farm, and being the first one opened in the County.
Store goods were expensive and money scarce so "homespun" constituted mainly the clothing of the pioneer. Calico cost 50 cents per yard, and was the staple dress goods for the ladies. Cotton cloth could be procured for the same price. Most linen was home made. Nearly every settler could make and mend coarse shoes for his family; as for lighter covering the feet were left to the covering which nature gave them.
The first census of the county gave 27 white and one black man as the population. When Cephas nelson settled at Lymansville, the whole population of the county was comprised of 21 families. These were scattered on their small clearings, surrounded by dense forests, in many cases so far apart as hardly to be neighborly, when living within four or five miles of each other made families near neighbors.
What must have been the reflections of the venerable sons of those four Nelsons, who with their families, first settled at Lymansville, as they looked upon the crowd of their kindred assembled there at the old homestead, coming as they all had from their homes of comfort and refinement.
Next year the family will hold a reunion picnic at the residence of Henry Nelson in Coudersport.
Bio
Posted 09 Apr 2012 by n2zhf
ALMERON NELSON, Coudersport, is a son of Cephas and Eunice Nelson, and was born in the town of Putnam, Washington Co., N. Y., January 15, 1817. His grandfather, John Nelson, was one of four brothers Paul, Moses, John and Daniel completing the number, all of whom married and reared families. John was born in Massachusetts about 1750. He removed to Washington county, N. Y., town of Hebron, where he married Mollie Hare, a lady of Scotch descent, and they had a family of fourteen children: Ezekiel, John, Moses, Joel, Cephas, Silas, Lyman, Isaac, David, Betsy, Polly, Sallie, Annico and Eleanor.
Cephas, the fifth son of John Nelson, was born in the town of Hebron, Washington county, near the Vermont line, and there married the daughter of Hon. Isaac Lyman, whose residence was at Pollett, where he built a saw mill over 100 years ago, and who was a major of the Revolution, a member of the State legislature, and afterward a resident of Lake George and of Charleston, Toga Co., Penn Having made the acquaintance of extensive land holders, who in him perceived good executive ability, his services were engaged as their agent, necessitating his removal to Lymansville, Potter Co., Penn., which, later, was named in his honor. There he remained as their agent until his decease.
Cephas and his family removed to Lake George, and eventually to Potter county, locating in 1820 on the farm now owned by Almeron Nelson, at Lymansville. Here Cephas and his family underwent the privations and experiences incident to pioneer life. The family comprised six children:
- Horatio, - Henry, - Charlotte,
- Lyman, - James and - Almeron.
The eldest three are deceased, as are also the parents. Almeron, the fifth son of Cephas, after serving an apprenticeship at hard work, married Henrietta M. McClelland in 1844, and to them were born three children, of whom but one lives,
- Eunice M. (now Mrs. Daniel Park, of Tioga Co., N. Y.).
Almeron lost his wife in 1866, and in the following year he married Elizabeth A. Taggart, and has by this marriage two children:
- Henrietta M. and
- Almeron T.
Mr. Nelson was elected county commissioner in 1849, and jury commissioner in 1859, and served three terms -nine years. He was the nominee of the Democratic party for State senator, and also for judge, but was defeated. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and of Eulalia Lodge, No. 342, F. & A. M.
Newspaper Article by Almeron Nelson
Posted 09 Apr 2012 by n2zhf
"Sixty years ago to day my father came to this place with his family and settled on the same farm that I live on. My parents had five sons and one daughter. My parents and sister died over 20 years ago; my four brothers are still living, the youngest is 63.
In 1820 when my father came there were only 20 families in the county.
- First female child born in county was Eulalia Lyman. She is dead.
- John R. Burt was first male child. He lives in Roulette Township.
When I look back upon the last 60 years and see how quickly they have passed, I cannot help but think who will be left out of the old settlers in 20 years to tell the history of the early days of Potter County." Almeron Nelson.
First Murder of Potter County
Posted 09 Apr 2012 by n2zhf
The first murder in the county was committed on the morning of August 11, 1838, in the township of Genesee, by Joshua Jones, who killed his wife in her bed, shooting her through the head with his rifle. After committing the deed he laid his rifle upon the bed by the side of the body, and coolly went after his cows. Perhaps he hoped that some of the neighbors might happen to come in, and the deed be looked upon as a case of suicide. After returning with his cows he alarmed the neighbors with the report that his wife had shot herself, but his story was not believed and he was arrested. Jones was brought to trial December, 28, 1838, found guilty of murder, and sentenced at the February term, 1839, to be hung May 31, 1839. He afterward confessed his crime, and sold his body to Dr. Amos French, of Coudersport. It is said that he bought luxuries with the money paid for his body, and became fat while in jail. It seems that when he sold his body to Dr. French he had stipulated that the doctor should endeavor to resuscitate him, and this idea is given in a doggerel poem, which appeared some time after the hanging, purporting to have been written by Jones' "ghost." On the evening of May 21, 1839, Jones, who had got possession of a file by some means, relieved himself of his shackles, and, breaking the lock of his cell door, escaped. This was supposed to have been accomplished early in the evening. His disappearance was not discovered by the sheriff, Miles Thompson, until the next morning. The sheriff offered a reward for the recapture of Jones, the advertisement being as follows in the Potter Pennant of May 23, 1839:
$200 REWARD.
Broke jail on Tuesday night the 21st inst. Joshua Jones, convicted of the murder of his wife at February court, last, and to have been executed on the 31st inst. Said Jones is about five feet nine or ten inches high, of slim build, light complexion, projecting forehead, black eyes, dark, curly hair, a downcast yet scrutinizing expression of countenance, and a very soft and slow manner, of speaking. Had on, when he left, a black, straight bodied coat, a pair of grey pantaloons, with patches on the knees, a single- breasted vest of the same material, a high- crown, narrow- brimmed hat, considerably worn, and coarse cowhide shoes with nails in the heels. $200 reward will be given for his apprehension and delivery at the jail in Coudersport, or $100 reward if lodged in jail where he can be secured.
MILES THOMPSON, Sheriff.
Coudersport, May 22, 1839.
The editor of the Potter Pennant in the same issue announces by postscript to an editorial notice:
Since the above was in type Jones has been taken and safely lodged in jail. He was found in Genesee township in the woods near Mr. VanNorman's, about twelve miles from this place. Much credit is due to the sheriff and his posse for their indefatigable perseverance in his apprehension.
The two men who took Jones were William Hill and Almeron Nelson. He was hung as sentenced, May 31, 1839, in the court- house square. The scaffold was erected about midway of the present court- house, on the west side, just beyond, toward Second street where the band stand is now. The hanging was witnessed by a large crowd of spectators. Dr. Amos French was the attending physician at the execution. The sheriff became nervous and sprung the trap sooner than was expected, which came very near dropping Dr. French through the trap with the condemned man. The body of Jones was handed over to Dr. French, who took it to Whitesville, and in conjunction with Dr. Thorp, of that place dissected it. The skeleton is still in Coudersport, the property of Dr. C.S. French, a son of Dr. Amos French, and who is a practicing physician here. This was the first and only execution that ever took place in this county. Other murders have been committed, but the perpetrators have thus far escaped with their necks unencircled by the hangman's noose.
OBITUARY
n2zhf
n2zhf originally shared this on 30 Jun 2009
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1826 - 1866 (40 years)
d. 26 Sep 1896, Coudersport, Potter, Pennsylvania, USA 
