William Lester Nelson

     NELSON, William Lester, a Representative from Missouri; born on a farm near Bunceton, Cooper County, Mo., August 4, 1875; attended the country schools in his native county, Hooper Institute, William Jewell College at Liberty, Mo., and the Missouri College of Agriculture at Columbia; taught school for five years; subsequently entered the newspaper business at Bunceton, Mo; member of the State house of representatives 1901-1903 and 1905-1907; moved to Columbia, Mo., to become assistant secretary of the State board of agriculture and served from 1908 to 1918; member of the editorial staff of the Iowa Homestead and other Pierce publications 1921-1924; also engaged in agricultural pursuits; author of various agricultural publications; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1919-March 3, 1921); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress; resumed journalistic pursuits in Columbia, Mo; elected to the Sixty-ninth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1925-March 3, 1933); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1932; elected to the Seventy-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1943); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress; served as assistant to War Food Administrator Marvin Jones in 1943; returned to Columbia, Mo; died in Columbia, Mo., December 31, 1946; interment in Columbia Cemetery.¹
William was born at Cooper Co., Mo., on 4 August 1875. He married Stella C. Boschert on 9 June 1909. William died on 31 December 1946 at Columbia, Mo., at age 71.