Theodore Gilbert Nelson was born January 26, 1880, in Rock Dell Township, Olmstead County, Minnesota to Ole G. and Gulbjor Nelson. When Theodore was 15 months old his parents moved to a homestead near Hatton, North Dakota.  In 1906 he became involved with the American Society of Equity movement and went to Chicago where he served as president of the Department of Grain Grovers and also as editor of the Equity Farm Journal. In 1908 he was instrumental in getting the Federal Grain Inspection Law passed and in 1910 he attended the joint American Society of Equity and Farmer's Union Convention in Missouri.  In 1917 he helped organize the Independent Voter's Association which fought against the Townley led Non-Partisan League, also publishing the Independent, later the Rural Independent, the IVA's periodical. In 1918 he managed S. J. Doyle's campaign for governor and in 1921, led the successful campaign by the Plain Citizens Political Reform Association to recall Gov. Lynn Frazier, William Lemke and John Hagan, the first such recall in the nation.

The Nelson Collection consists of correspondence and subject files. The correspondence from 1907-11 covers primarily his membership in the American Society of Equity and his function as President of the Department of Grain Growers, including letters to and from Charles Pierson, P. E. Cooper, S. D. Kemp, Attorney General Lyndon Smith, D. 0. Mahoney and Thomas Barrett.  In the subject files is material from the American Society of Equity including proceedings of the 1907 Convention in Indiana, the 1907 A.Sof E.Directory, material from the Department of Grain Growers including a 1909 Fargo Convention, and Equity Cooperative Elevators (1908-10), a set of records on correspondence (1907), proceedings of a 1908 Wisconsin Convention, and miscellaneous items including the A.S.of E by-laws and song, the Equity Farm Journal, an open letter from J. A. Everitt (1910) and a 1908 list from the Chicago Exchange. 
 

Politics and Government