These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
November 2, 2025
In the collection of the Roseau County Museum is a book copyrighted by Earl V Chapin in 1951
that he called “The Roseau County Book”, The story of business in Roseau County, and the
services it has to offer its trade area. It tells about the beginnings of some of the local businesses
operating 75 years ago. Today I’ll read one of those stories.
The well-known firm of Nelson and Son, in the same family as a concern serving the changing
demands of a progressing community for 47 years, is older than automobiles, with which it has
been so long and prominently identified.
The horse was in its heyday when Martin Nelson came to Roseau in 1903 and with T. C.
Petterson set up a blacksmith shop just across from Herman Messenbrink’s livery barn, a good
location, under the circumstances.
In time another sound began to intrude upon the clanging of anvils, if not physically, at least in
the minds of forward-looking blacksmiths. That sound was the sharp exhaust reports of the first
motor cars.
It was in 1910 or ’11 that Petterson and Nelson brought the first Ford cars to Roseau for display
to a somewhat dubious public. Two or three cars yearly was a good sale to begin with: people
convinced that the automobile was here to stay were still not convinced that there was much in
the way of roads to drive them on. Ford soon had competition as the manufacturer of low-priced
motor cars. Louis Chevrolet had put out something neat for the public and Petterson and Nelson
added this franchise.
In 1918 the partnership of Petterson and Nelson was dissolved, with Mr Nelson keeping the
Chevrolet franchise and the blacksmith shop. Although the firm was now doing a “whirlwind of
business” in cars (selling 12 a year), the horse was still an important part of the contemporary
scene, as Cap Nelson well remembers. For he went to work for his dad in 1919, and got his
apprenticeship shoeing horses and mending sleigh chains.
In 1920 Martin Nelson built the first fireproof garage in Roseau, where the firm has since been
located.
In 1935, after Martin Nelson’s death (he was not only a pioneering businessman, but served as
county commissioner for 36 years, and as chairman of the board for 32), Nelson Chevrolet was
taken over by [brothers] Elmer [“Cap”] and Art Nelson. In 1937 Cap took over the operation
alone. Hodgeman’s livery barn adjacent, one of the town’s oldest landmarks, was torn down and
the site became a used car lot for the Nelson firm. The auto had finally become triumphant over
the horse. In 1943 Nelson Chevrolet branched out into the farm machinery business with the
Minneapolis-Moline line. Bob Nelson became a partner in 1945, and the firm name changed to
Nelson and Son.
Possibly the first in Roseau county to retail automobiles, the Nelson firm also has a number of
other firsts to its credit – first to install equipment for wheel aligning and balancing, first to install
equipment for adjusting headlamps, first in the field with automobile showings; and continuing
their pioneering, first in the year of 1950, with a propane gas burning tractor.
Nelsons were also a pioneering radio dealer in the days when, to sell a set, you climbed on top
of the house and barn, strung up a 100 foot aeriel, and left the set for a week for a free trial.
Nelsons were also the first, in 1947, to introduce the Larson aluminum boat, which has earned a
place of high esteem among sportsmen.
Today, after putting nearly 1,400 new passenger cars and more than 5,600 used cars on the
road, Nelsons are still looking forward to new firsts in sales and service to the people of Roseau
county.
Eleven persons comprise the personnel of Nelson and Son. Robert (Bob) Nelson, is in charge of
the automobile business, Arnold (Mons) Monsrud, heads the machinery sales and service.
“Mons” is oldest here in point of service, having been with the firm for 12 years. Gordon
Lundquist has been with Nelsons as a mechanic since 1941, and Einar Bergren, also a
mechanic, since 1942.
In 1927, a customer getting proudly into his new Chevrolet, remarked: “This is it. They’ll never be
able to improve on this.” And so do people continue to view many of industry’s new
accomplishments. But Nelsons, having seen the horse give way to the auto and gas driven
tractor, can understandably peer into their own private crystal ball and see “Dealers in
Automobiles.”
Next week, I’ll follow up with some of the ownership changes through the following years.
Thank you to 
for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.