Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/515

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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war of 1861-65 broke out, was first employed recruiting and drilling troops, later taking the field and participating in many engage- ments and battles. He was taken prisoner at Five Forks and for four months held in confinement at Point Lookout. After the war he returned to his farming and so con- tinued until his death. His son, Anderson H., now cultivates the homestead. Captain Nelson married Ann Judson Overbey, born in Mecklenburg county, daughter of Ander- son and Sarah ( Newton ) Overbey. She died July 2"/. 1905, aged si.xty-six years, and the remains of both are interred in the churchyard at Nelson. Children: i. Mar- garet Ann, married R. A. Yancey, of Person county, North Carolina. 2. Sallie Howell, married W. L. Thomas, of Roxboro, North Carolina. 3. Lelia Beauregard, widow of Calvin Mitchell, of Person county, now re- siding at Nelson, Virginia. 4. Martha Berenice, died aged three years. 5. Mollie Jane, the first wife of W. L. Thomas, who married (second) her sister, Sallie H. ; she died in 1908, leaving four children, one of ihem. Dr. Nelson Thomas, now a success- ful physician of Oxford, North Carolina. 6. Anderson Flenry, merchant, lumber dealer and farmer living at the old home in Nelson. 7. Haseltine Judson, married J. W. Winston, now residing in Nelson. 8. Thomas Baker, a merchant and farmer, of Nelson. 9. Wil- lie Lee, married Dr. G. S. Watkins, of Granville county, North Carolina, now practicing at Oxford, North Carolina. 10. Ida Bell, residing at Nelson, Virginia. 11. Alatthew Overbey, of whom further.

Ann Judson Overbey Nelson, the mother of the above named children, was a daugh- ter of Anderson Overbey, born in Mecklen- burg county, Virginia, 1797, died in 1875; a farmer and justice of the peace for forty years : a man of wealth and prominence in his native county. He married Sarah, daughter of S. J. Newton ; she died in 1863, aged sixty years ; children : Martha, the only survivor, married R. R. Chandler ; the dead are : Jane, married Richard Yancey ; Patrick, killed at Gettysburg, a Confederate soldier; Baker, also gave up his life in the same war ; Ann Judson, married Captain Howell Stevens Nelson, of previous men- tion ; Sarah, married S. P. Chandler, of Granville county. North Carolina.

Alatthew Overbey Nelson, son of Captain Howell Stevens and Ann Judson (Overbey)

Nelson, was born on the Mecklenburg farm (Nelson) of his father, September 15, 1868. He attended the public schools, and worked on the farm, being his father's assistant until twenty-two years of age, having also during that ]5eriod attended Horner's Mili- tary Academy at Henderson, North Caro- lina, and spent two years at school in Oak Ridge, North Carolina, there completing his studies. He married, at the age of twenty- two years, and for two years continued farming, locating in Danville, October i, 1892, and beginning his long experience as a tobacco warehouseman. He was first en- gaged with Keeling & Corbin at the Cabell Warehouse for seven years, then began business for himself at the Liberty Ware- house, continuing four years. In 1903 he secured an interest in Acree's Warehouse and became assistant to E. F. Acree & Brother, now both deceased. At the death of the principal owner he was made liead manager and is now the respon- sible head of this, the largest "bright" tobacco warehouse in the world. He is also president of the Hodnett-Chism Furniture Company, of Danville, one of the best ap- pointed and largest furniture stores in the state, director of the Union Drug Store Company, director of the Danville Co-oper- ative Warehouse Company, director of the Danville Fair Association,' director of the Union Building and Loan Association, di- rector of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, and member of the Danville Com- mercial Association. Mr. Nelson is a mem- ber of the Moft'ett Baptist Church, which he serves as chairman of the board of deacons, chairman of the finance committee and sec- retary of the Men's Bible Class. He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to lodge, chapter, commandery and shrine. In political faith he is a Democrat.

Mr. Nelson married, December 24, 1890, in Summerfield, Guilford county, North Carolina, Ida Hoskins, born in Guilford county, November 6, 1873, daughter of George O. and Martha (Brookbank) Hos- kins. George O. Hoskins, a successful farmer, died in May, 1905, aged sixty-five years. His widow Martha, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Brookbank, of Guilford county, now resides with her daughter, Ida (Hoskins) Nelson, in Danville, \^irginia, her only child. Children of Matthew O. and Ida (Hoskins) Nelson: Matthew Oliver,