Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/1217

 IIISTOKY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 1055 of the famous men whom they entertained a1 their home in the early days is related in the general history of Belle (reek which appears in this volume. Mrs. Julia Bullard Nelson, of Red Winy, educator, author, lec- turer and a prominenl worker in the cause of women and tem- perance, has taught in Texas. Minnesota, Tennessee and Con- necticut, and lectured in almosl every state in the union in the interest of the W. ('. T. T. and woman's suffrage. She was born at High Ridge, Conn., May 13. 1842. daughter of Edward and Angeline Raymond Bullard, who came to this country from Eng- land in 1836 and settled in High Ridge, her father later being one of Minnesota's pioneers. She was educated in the public schools of Iowa and in an academy at Denmark, Iowa, later completing her studies at the Ilamline University, when that institution was located at Bed Wing. From 1861 to 1866 she was engaged in teaching in Connecticut and Minnesota, being the iirst woman to hold a first grade certificate in Goodhue county. September 25, 1866, she was married to Ole Nelson, a soldier of the Civil War, who enlisted in Company P, Sixth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry August 1, 1862, and served until June 27, 1865, wdien he was honorably discharged. He was born in Norway and his parents came to America in 1818, his father having chartered a ship and brought a ship load of emigrants over to settle in the new country. Mr. Nelson died January 9, 1869, and after the death of her husband and child, Mrs. Nelson, who w T as then achieving note as one of the early advocates of woman's suf- frage, decided to consecrate her life to work among the lowly and downtrodden. She was sent by the American Missionary Association, in 1869, to teach the freedmen in Texas, where she labored until 1873. During the years 1875-77 she taught a school for colored children at Athens, Tenn., and for the next four years was principal of the Warner Institute at Jonesboro, Tenn. Mrs. Nelson preached from 1883-88 and organized the Congregational Church at Jonesboro during that time, after which she engaged in Prohibition work in eastern Tennessee. From 1889 to 1890 she w r as the vice president of the Minnesota W. C. T. U., and lec- turer, and from 1890 to 1896 w r as president of the Minnesota Woman's Suffrage Association and lectured for the National Association of Woman's Suffrage. For four years she edited the "White Ribbon," a W. C. T. U. paper, and during all this time has written both prose and poetry for the press. She lectured on temperance before there was a union, and led in a debate on the question of woman's suffrage in Red Wing, in Good Templars' hall, in 1869. Mrs. Nelson has financially assisted in ob- taining education for many young people who have since attained prominence in educational and religious endeavor. Although now