Horace W. Nelson is a man of sterling worth and honor and has displayed the qualities of substantiality and enterprise in all his ways. Since coming to Nez Perces County in 1880, he has remained here and is well and favorably known throughout its borders.
Horace W. Nelson was born in Marion County, Iowa, on January 18, 1872, being the son of James R. and Mary C. (Ruddell) Nelson. The father is now living on the old homestead in Tammany hollow and the mother died on November 20, 1898. She was the daughter of Elder John M. Ruddell, a pioneer in Adams County, Illinois. Horace was the fifth of a family of ten children, eight boys and two girls. The parents were both born and raised in Adams County, Illinois, and came to Iowa and in 1876, they came thence to Walla Walla via San Francisco and Portland. In 1880 they migrated to Tammany hollow and there our subject was reared and received his education in this County.
On Christmas day, 1892, he married Miss Delia, daughter of James and Martha A. McKissicks, natives of Tennessee. The father died there and she came to Nez Perces County with her mother in 1890. The mother now lives with her son, John, near Lewiston. Mr. Nelson has a large number of work horses, a fine equipment of farming machinery and handles several hundred acres of land each year. He owned a farm but sold it and now rents land from other parties.
He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Lodge No. 8, also of the Encampment, both in Lewiston. Mr. Nelson has spent the major portion of his life in Nez Perces County and has gained a standing for honor and real worth of character that is very gratifying. His ancestors were people of a high sense of honor and integrity and this son is in no wise an exception.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903