John Nelson

	Nelson

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Doraville Whitney was the first Black settler in Isabella County in 1860. The first documentation of an African-American settler in Mecosta County Michigan was James Guy. His deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln. He obtained 160 acres in Wheatland Township on May 30, 1861. Lloyd & Margaret Guy were the first Black settlers in Montcalm County in 1861. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed each settler 160 acres in Michigan. By 1873 African-Americans owned 1,392 acres in the three counties of Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm. In the 1860's most of the land in Remus was owned by the Old Settlers.

John Nelson

Pictures: Courtesy of Ada (Nelson) Palmer

Derelys Brown & Jack Washington

John Nelson Family

Front: Ada, John, Sadie, Berice, Ada, Milo

Back: James, John, Pearl, Raymond, Hattie, Hazel, Claude

Morris & Marjourie Nelson

Ada Mae Harding-Nelson &

Jessie Smith - (1898)

Ada Mae Harding-Nelson

See Harding Web Page

Faye Nelson

Morris Nelson, Sr. Family

Kneeling from left to right: Carolyn (granddaughter), Gordon, Ann, and Betty

Standing from left to right: Gwendolyn, Bernadine, Marjourie, Donald, Geraldine, Morris, Sr., Winifred, Doris, and Waynard

Gwendolyn Nelson

Skinner

(Circa 1944)

Daughter of

Morris Sr. &

Marjourie Nelson

Gwendolyn Nelson-Skinner &

Kenneth Skinner

(son of Arthur Skinner &

Minnie Kidd Skinner

John Cummings Family)

Craig, Derelys, Connie and Dennis

(Children of Gwendolyn Nelson-Skinner)

Gwendolyn Nelson Skinner with

children Derelys and Dennis

Wanda Seaton, Betty Nelson, Lenora Seaton Leo Johnson, Winifred Nelson, Gwendolyn Nelson and Burnell Clark

Wavalene and Carolyn

Daughters of Geraldine Nelson

(Morris Nelson family)

Jeanette

Daughter of Bernadine Nelson

(Morris Nelson Family)

Marriage license for Soloman &

Jessie Harding

Ada & Mary's parents (1879)

John Nelson was born a slave in 1830 in Louisville, Kentucky. He escaped from his slave master, George Lynn in 1854. After running away, he changed his name to Alexander Carter and fled to Marrow, Ontario, Canada. He remained in Canada until 1860. While in Canada he met and married Harriet Mulder born in 1842. They were married at Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 25, 1860. In March 1865, John enlisted in the United States Army. He was inducted at Lockport, New York, and was sent to Massachusetts. For medical reasons he was discharged at Wilmington, North Carolina in April 1865.

John and his family moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where they lived until 1880. They then moved to Leslie, Michigan, where they lived until 1884. In 1884 they moved to the McBride-Stanton area. In 1885 they homesteaded the property of which a part is still in the Nelson family. After John's death in 1906, Harriet received a pension of $8 per month from the United States Army. She received this pension until her death in 1923. John and Harriet Nelson died and are buried in the McBride Cemetery, McBride, Michigan. Their children are: Eliza, Sarah, Annie, John, James, Robert, Forrest, Morris and Winifred.


	Nelson

There are "Old Settlers" who came from Canada via "The Underground Railroad." It was the most dramatic nonviolent protest against slavery in the United States that began in the Colonial Era and reached its peak between 1830 and 1865. An estimated 30,000 to 100,000 slaves used the "railroad" to get to Canada; many others escaped to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe.