Socrates Nelson

Socrates Nelson (January 11, 1814 – May 6, 1867) was an American businessman, politician, and pioneer who served one term as a Minnesota State Senator from 1859 to 1861.

He was a general store owner, lumberman, and real estate speculator associated with numerous companies in the insurance and rail industries.

When arriving in Stillwater, he initially built a store and established a mercantile business, which he ran for eleven years.

[30] Nelson entered the lumber business in earnest on February 7, 1851, as one of the corporators of the St. Croix Boom Company organized by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.

[32] Riding a boom in real estate speculation and soaring land prices, Nelson and Churchill deeded 40 acres (16 ha) of land in January 1857 to St. Paul real estate salesman Robert F. Slaughter, half of which Slaughter deeded in turn to Hilary B.

[37][c] Along with their wives, the four platted the area of nearly 500 lots on June 15, just months before the onset of a worldwide financial crisis known as the Panic of 1857.

[39] Amid a collapsing real estate market and with speculation screeching to a halt, the value of the now-platted and mostly unsold land plummeted to practical worthlessness.

[23] In early April 1867, hoping to spur development and drive demand for nearby lots they owned, Nelson and Elizabeth Churchill offered to sell the city of Stillwater an entire block of land for a token amount of $5 (equivalent to $109 in 2023) with no strings attached for the construction of a courthouse.

[49] In 1854, a stock company consisting of Nelson and others published Stillwater's first newspaper, the St. Croix Union – a Democratic-leaning, weekly periodical which was printed until 1857.

[54][55] When the state of Wisconsin was carved out of the Wisconsin Territory in 1848, some portions of eastern Minnesota (including Stillwater) were not accounted for, and left without representation in Washington, D.C.[56][57] Nelson was one of a seven-person committee that met at the Stillwater convention on August 26, 1848, and gathered sixty-one signatures for a petition to Congress that led to the 1849 establishment of the Minnesota Territory.

[58][59] A group of citizens organized elections for a congressional representative from the Minnesota Territory,[57] held on October 30, 1848.

[61] On October 20, 1849, Nelson was involved with the organization of the Minnesota Democratic Party at a convention held in Saint Paul.

[1] As part of the committee on railroads, Nelson co-authored a report with Lucius K. Stannard on February 4, 1860, recommending the expungement of Article IX Section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution – known as the Loan Amendment.

The amendment was introduced in 1858 to expedite the development of railway infrastructure and authorized a total of up to $5 million (equivalent to $169,600,000 in 2023) in loans for railroad companies.

[78] Reiner won the election held on November 6, 1860, defeating Nelson as part of a string of legislative gains for Minnesota's Republican Party.

[94] A plaque on the north portico of the Washington County Historic Courthouse commemorates the date when Nelson and Churchill sold the block of land for its construction.

A panoramic, aerial sketch of Stillwater. Steamboats enter and leave the city on the St. Croix River. The town, surrounded by timberland and hills, has a Main Street which runs along the of the St. Croix, and a locomotive runs parallel to it. A courthouse, built on land donated by Nelson, is located to the left (south) in a more sparsely populated part of the town.
Panoramic sketch of Stillwater drawn in 1870
The Washington County Courthouse is a red brick building. Atop the building is a dome with multiple windows. There is a staircase leading up to the courthouse entrance. The entrance sits under an archway and consists of two wooden doors.
Washington County Historic Courthouse in Stillwater, Minnesota, built on land donated by Nelson and his business partner
A tablet commemorating the 1848 Stillwater convention. To the top left and top right are the years 1848 and 1948. The text reads: "Birth of Minnesota – On this site, in the frontier river settlement of Stillwater, sixty-one delegates from the vast unorganized wilderness west of the St. Croix assembled on August 26, 1848 to hold the Minnesota Territorial Convention. In this convention the name Minnesota was selected and the spelling agreed upon, a petition was drawn, memorializing Congress to set up a territorial government, and H. H. Sibley was dispatched to Washington as the delegate of the convention bearing the petition." Below this is smaller print, reading: "This tablet erected by the Stillwater Territorial Centennial Committee – August 26, 1948".
Tablet commemorating the sixty-one delegates who attended the 1848 Stillwater convention, one of whom was Nelson
A light-red-brick building. A bay window sits above the entrance, while two stone signs to the left and the right, respectively, read "Nelson" and "A.D. 1837". The building has two chimneys and a window at the top middle.
The building that housed the Nelson School , named in Socrates Nelson's honor