Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson

Early life

Nelson was born on Eskridge Farm in rural Roane County, Tennessee, the second son of farmer and land agent David Nelson and his wife, Phoebe White Nelson.

Around 1840, Nelson moved his practice to Jonesborough, where he would remain for two decades. On October 29, 1840, he debated rising Democratic politician Andrew Johnson to a draw as the two campaigned for William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren, respectively.

Whig officials consistently encouraged Nelson to run for office, but Nelson always declined, stating that officeholders' salaries were inadequate to support his family. Responding to Nelson, Virginia Congressman Roger Pryor mocked the fact that Nelson mentioned only the Union and not the Constitution, as though he adored the former more than the latter. Nelson shot back:

"If I mistake not, it is the common sentiment of the secessionists of the South, that they talk about the Constitution, but say nothing about the Union. When I talk about the Union, what do I talk about? I talk about that thing which is the result of the American Constitution." In subsequent weeks Nelson, Johnson, Brownlow and Horace Maynard canvassed East Tennessee, delivering hundreds of speeches and encouraging the region's residents to reject secession. While Tennessee voted to secede on June 8, most counties in East Tennessee remained solidly pro-Union.

Nelson delivered the dedicatory address at the opening of Staub's Theatre in Knoxville on October 1, 1872, and spent his last years advising local politicians and teaching Sunday school at Knoxville's Second Presbyterian Church. He contracted cholera and died on August 24, 1873. He is interred in an unmarked grave in Old Gray Cemetery.

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