His elder brothers both served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

[2] Nelson married Maria Bruce Matthews of Port Tobacco, Maryland in 1877, but they had no children.

Nelson served as rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist[3] in what became Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood (1876-1882), then accepted a position as rector of Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1882-1892), then in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania but since 1904 the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem.

[6] Addressing the second annual meeting of the diocese's council of colored churchmen at the Church of the Good Shepherd, he described Alexander as "a devout, godly and respected colored woman," and ordained her as a deaconess (she would become the Episcopal Church's first and only African American deaconess).

[7] At the time of the diocesan separation later that year, the Diocese of Atlanta (northwestern Georgia) was created with 28 churches and missions.

[8] Nelson's publications included collections of Episcopal Addresses and Occasional Sermons, as well as editorial articles in The Church in Georgia.

He was buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, near his friend (and church founder) Thomas Egleston.