Charles Nelson (July 4, 1835 – December 13, 1891) was a businessman and distiller in Middle Tennessee who was well known for his contributions to the banking, rail, music, and whiskey industries, among others.
Nelson was born on July 4, 1835, in Hagenow, a small town in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin state of northern Germany.
While the mother looked after the young children, Charles and his brother found work with Hayes & Schultz Co., a producer of soap and candles in New York City.
According to family records, Nelson encouraged his coffee delivery boy, Joel Cheek, to take his blend to the Maxwell House Hotel in downtown Nashville, where it later was famously proclaimed as “good to the last drop”.
Nelson & Co., Nelson sought to expand the production of his whiskey – He had begun distilling his product through a contract distiller in the Nashville area before purchasing the Green Brier Distillery in Greenbrier, Tennessee, a small town in the surrounding Robertson County area, in 1867.
In comparison, the annual production capacity of Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee was 23,000 gallons.
Charles Nelson was also on the forefront of marketing and advertising at the time, giving away sets of calendars with pictures of beautiful women, originally painted by artists such as Henri Rondel, G.T.
“Nelson felt strongly about the creation of such a company for the city that by this time was growing at a rapid rate.
As an example of this it may be mentioned that when it was proposed several years ago to establish a Musical Union and a meeting was held at the Maxwell House for that purpose, Mr. Nelson arose after everyone else had spoken and announced that he had come to join the enterprise, and that he wished all the members of his family to be enrolled as life members, and subscribed $200 on the spot.
He married his second wife, Louisa Rohlfing on March 4, 1863, and except for a brief stint in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Nelsons resided in Nashville.
He was survived by his wife Louisa and all six of his children, including Charles, Jr. His obituary said: The home life of Mr. Nelson was ideally beautiful.
At Christmas time, and on July 4, Mr. Nelson’s birthday, the children were summoned whether at school in Massachusetts or New York, to the family gathering.