David Nelson

David Nelson (September 24, 1793 – October 17, 1844) was an American Presbyterian minister, physician, and antislavery activist who founded Marion College and served as its first president. Marion College, a Protestant manual labor college, was the first institution of higher learning chartered in the state of Missouri. Born in Tennessee, Dr. Nelson had once been a slaveholder but became an "incandescent" abolitionist after hearing a speech by Theodore D. Weld. Unpopular with proslavery groups in northeastern Missouri, Nelson stepped down as president of Marion College in 1835. In 1836, Nelson fled Missouri for Quincy, Illinois, after slaveowner Dr. John Bosely was stabbed at one of his sermons. Nelson then remained in Quincy, where he founded the Mission Institute to educate young missionaries. Openly abolitionist, two Mission Institute sites became well known stations on the Underground Railroad, helping African Americans escape to Canada to be free from slavery.

Nelson was the author of The Cause and Cure of Infidelity, which includes an account of his conversion to Christianity. He also wrote the lyrics to "The Shining Shore," a popular hymn by composer George Frederick Root. Nelson is said to have written the poem while he was a fugitive in Marion County, Missouri, looking across the Mississippi River toward Quincy, Illinois.

Education and early career Nelson was born near Jonesborough in East Tennessee in 1793. His parents were originally from Rockbridge County, Virginia. Both taught at Washington College, which had been founded by Samuel Doak, a slaveowner who later became an abolitionist.

Medical training and practice Nelson was studying under Dr. Ephraim McDowell when he performed his groundbreaking ovarian surgery Nelson first studied medicine in Danville, Kentucky, under Ephraim McDowell, a pioneer surgeon. At the age of nineteen, he returned to Kentucky intending to practice medicine. He was sent to northeastern Missouri by the American Home Missionary Society (AHMS), along with several other Presbyterian ministers from Kentucky.

Nelson soon had the idea of establishing a Protestant college to educate "industrious young men, farmers and mechanics." The three founders envisioned a manual labor college that would eventually be self-supporting.

Nelson traveled around the state to raise money for the school. although he remained on the board of trustees that year. and succeeded in recruiting 126 new members that year. Many of these newcomers opposed slavery. For the next three days, Nelson hid and traveled by night until he reached the bank of the Mississippi River.

Back in Missouri, William Muldrow was taken into custody, but was later defended by lawyer Edward Bates, and acquitted.

As enrollment increased, the Mission Institute received additional land grants from supporters in Quincy. who referred to it as "Nelson College" More recently, classical music recording artists Anonymous 4 performed "The Shining Shore" on their album Gloryland, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Classical Music chart in 2006.

Discovery of secret room at Oakland In the 1960s, Ruth Deters's family discovered a hidden room underneath a trap door in their home, east of Quincy, Illinois, after one of her young sons hid from a babysitter. An Appeal to the Church in Behalf of a Dying Race: From the Mission Institute Near Quincy, Illinois Dr. Nelson's Lecture on Slavery

Hymns

"The Shining Shore" / "My days are gliding swiftly by" "A Better World in Prospect" / "'Twas told me in my early day" "Elizabeth Town C. M." / "O Lord, be thou with those who sail"