Individual Details
Otis Cornelius Nelson
(11 Aug 1875 - )
Notes for Otis Cornelius Nelson:
Otis was born on the family homestead in Highland Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota, on August 11, 1875. In March of 1901 with many others from that vicinity, he migrated in railway was containing livestock and farm equipment to Lake DeMay, District of Alberta, Canada, to homestead free land recently opened to settlement. The nearest railroad point to this was was Wetaskawin, thirty miles away. All farm equipment, household goods and belongings were transported by wagon to their new home over a trail that wound its way southward, skirting clumps of timber, through bogs caused by spring rains, fording streams and rivers and reaching their destination after enduring untold hardships.
The land selected by Otis Nelson for this homestead was to a large extent covered with small poplar trees and brush. After erecting a shelter for himself and team of horses, his everyday work was to clear the land for crops. It was good land and when put into crops produced as much as one hundred bushels of oats and forty bushels of wheat per acre. The homesteader was getting 25 cents for oats and 55 cents for his wheat. The long haul to market ended in 1905 with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad into the district, and established the village of Camrose seven miles to the southwest. The new village provided good markets for farm products. This establishment of a creamery gave a boost to the dairy farmer throughout the district. For the first time there was prosperity in the new land.
The prosperity enjoyed by the farmer and the businessman alike was, however, not to last. The outbreak of WWI in 1914 caused many young men on the farm to enter the armed forces of the nation for military service overseas. This caused the abandonment of many productive farms throughout the province. Market on farm products remained high throughout the war period and for a short time thereafter. The service men returning to the farm not only renewed their farming activities, but increased the cultivated acreage to take advantage of high prices on farm products. The increased farm acreage resulted in an over production of everything the farmers had to sell.
The markets became glutted forcing the prices down to an all time low of 8 cents per bushel for oats and 15 cents for wheat. Many farmers were forced to abandon their farms as these conditions brought on hard times which lasted to some extent until WWII, which came unexpectedly in 1940. Again young men and veterans of the former war were called into military service. Returns from the farm improved as war activities increased. A very unusual situation was created at harvest time in 1939 when a heavy blanket of snow covered the harvested and unharvested fields of grain. The shocked grain was not threshed until May the following year.
What caused further loss to crops was the moving into the snow covered shocks of millions of meadow mice that destroyed half of the grain. Farm conditions were greatly improved in the post-war period, as the market value of oats advanced to 65 cents and wheat $1.06 per bushel. The large amount of oil discovered in that district has created increased value of farm land.
Christine is buried at Lake DeMay Cemetery, Canada.
Otis was born on the family homestead in Highland Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota, on August 11, 1875. In March of 1901 with many others from that vicinity, he migrated in railway was containing livestock and farm equipment to Lake DeMay, District of Alberta, Canada, to homestead free land recently opened to settlement. The nearest railroad point to this was was Wetaskawin, thirty miles away. All farm equipment, household goods and belongings were transported by wagon to their new home over a trail that wound its way southward, skirting clumps of timber, through bogs caused by spring rains, fording streams and rivers and reaching their destination after enduring untold hardships.
The land selected by Otis Nelson for this homestead was to a large extent covered with small poplar trees and brush. After erecting a shelter for himself and team of horses, his everyday work was to clear the land for crops. It was good land and when put into crops produced as much as one hundred bushels of oats and forty bushels of wheat per acre. The homesteader was getting 25 cents for oats and 55 cents for his wheat. The long haul to market ended in 1905 with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad into the district, and established the village of Camrose seven miles to the southwest. The new village provided good markets for farm products. This establishment of a creamery gave a boost to the dairy farmer throughout the district. For the first time there was prosperity in the new land.
The prosperity enjoyed by the farmer and the businessman alike was, however, not to last. The outbreak of WWI in 1914 caused many young men on the farm to enter the armed forces of the nation for military service overseas. This caused the abandonment of many productive farms throughout the province. Market on farm products remained high throughout the war period and for a short time thereafter. The service men returning to the farm not only renewed their farming activities, but increased the cultivated acreage to take advantage of high prices on farm products. The increased farm acreage resulted in an over production of everything the farmers had to sell.
The markets became glutted forcing the prices down to an all time low of 8 cents per bushel for oats and 15 cents for wheat. Many farmers were forced to abandon their farms as these conditions brought on hard times which lasted to some extent until WWII, which came unexpectedly in 1940. Again young men and veterans of the former war were called into military service. Returns from the farm improved as war activities increased. A very unusual situation was created at harvest time in 1939 when a heavy blanket of snow covered the harvested and unharvested fields of grain. The shocked grain was not threshed until May the following year.
What caused further loss to crops was the moving into the snow covered shocks of millions of meadow mice that destroyed half of the grain. Farm conditions were greatly improved in the post-war period, as the market value of oats advanced to 65 cents and wheat $1.06 per bushel. The large amount of oil discovered in that district has created increased value of farm land.
Christine is buried at Lake DeMay Cemetery, Canada.
Events
| Birth | 11 Aug 1875 | Highland Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota | |||
| Marriage | 22 Sep 1905 | Christine Digre | |||
| Death | Probably Canada |
Families
| Spouse | Christine Digre (1878 - 1948) |
| Child | Gordon Nelson |
| Child | Maxwell Nelson |
| Child | Myrtle Nelson (1911 - ) |
| Child | Curtis Nelson (1906 - ) |
| Child | Annie Nelson (1908 - 1930) |
| Father | Halvar Nelson |
| Mother | Mary Halvorson |