Knute Nelson was born in Vosse Elven, Norway, on February 2, 1843. In 1849 he and his widowed mother emigrated to the United States, settling first in Chicago (1849-1850), then in Dane County, Wisconsin, where he enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment (1861-1864) during the Civil War. Following the war he graduated from the Albion Academy and studied law in a Madison, Wisconsin, law office, being admitted to the bar in 1867 and then serving as a representative in the Wisconsin assembly (1868-1869).
In 1871 he moved with his family to Alexandria, Minnesota, where he practiced law while farming a homestead tract. He served as Douglas County attorney (1872-1974), Minnesota state senator (1875-1878), presidential elector (1880), University of Minnesota regent (1882-1893), and fifth district representative to Congress (1883-1889). He was elected governor of Minnesota in 1892 and 1894, which post he resigned in 1895 to run successfully for the United States Senate, where he remained until 1923. Nelson was chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and the senate committee on public lands, and was active on the commerce and Indian affairs committees. His most notable legislative measures included the Nelson Bankruptcy Act (1898) and the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor (1902), and he was also active in the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Nelson also supported a low tariff, a federal income tax, Prohibition, the Sherman Act, and the League of Nations. He died on April 28, 1923, during his fifth senatorial term.
The above information was taken from the following sources: Dictionary of American Biography, vol. XIII (1934); Who Was Who in America, vol. I (1968);Minnesota Biographies (1912), Book of Minnesotans (1907), Minnesota Historical Society Collections, vol. XIII (August 1908).
The Minnesota Historical Society Archives contains a large collection of Knute Nelson.
Scope and Content:
Papers concerning a Norwegian-born attorney and statesman: Clippings, correspondence, genealogy, transcripts and translations of letters, and speeches. Papers include: Nelson's translation of the Norwegian Constitution (1895, 27 p.); Pedigree chart prepared by Ralph Rolland who shares some of the ancestry; clippings and copies of newspaper articles on observances of the 150th anniversary of Nelson's birthday. "Program ved minnehøgtiti, 14. Aug. 19”; Transcripts of letters written by Nelson's mother to her mother (Dec. 23, 1863) and her niece (Dec. 8, 1868); and letters from Nelson to his cousin Anders Bergo (1899-1923), collected by T.C. Blegen; other copies in the America Letters collection.
Nine Civil War letters translated by Nora O. Solum for Dr. Millard L. Gieske, Summer 1965. The letters were edited by Gieske and published in "Norwegian-American Studies," v.23 (1967) pp. 17-50 (along with letters written in English). The originals are in the Nelson Papers, Minnesota Historical Society Correspondence concerning the translation (some with Gerhard B. Naeseth and correspondents in Dane co.) includes considerable detail about the Drosvold/ Drogsvold family, including a questionnaire filled out by Annie Drosvold Norgarn.
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