Sheriff James M. Nelson

National Law Enforcement Memorial Week brings serious thoughts to American citizens who remember the loss of those elected or charged to protect and serve. There are ceremonies all across the country with higher ranking officials talking about service and commitment.

At Washington D.C., the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is resplendent with memorabilia and care. Many law enforcement agencies send a representative to the Nation’s Capitol to be a part of the program. There are car doors from law enforcement vehicles, each signed with names and badge numbers, remembering one of their own killed in a crash. There are dented gas tanks from law enforcement motorcycles signifying the same. There are roses left. Wreaths are laid commemorating the sting of death.

Toward the northeast corner of the block-sized area, the beautiful low-level, alabaster walls begin. From a bird’s eye view, the walls form two facing ellipses. They call attention to the officers killed in the line of duty by listing the names. A particular name important to this area is that of James M. Nelson. He was the Cheyenne County Sheriff. He was shot before he got out of his Sheriff’’s vehicle February 20, 1930.

From various sources of information, some information about this good man, husband, father, and public servant follows.

James Nelson (Jim) was born about ten years after the Civil War ended. He was the eldest of the kids born to L. K. and Anna Dibdahl Nelson. The family moved about the country, going from Illinois to California and finally settling on a farm south and west of Potter, nearly on the Kimball County line. It was referred to as the “south table” area.

Jim was almost thirty years of age when he married Gertrude Rasmussen. Mrs. Nelson was quite hard of hearing due to having been a victim of scarlet fever when she was four years old. With a significant handicap that his wife suffered, Jim was seen as the mother and father to the six children born to this marriage.

He knew the childrens’ wants and needs and tended to them quickly. He built play areas out of corn stalks, built teeter-totters, and constructed a merry-go-round. He knew that kids needed room to play and devised ways to make it happen. The family played cards around the dining room table, learning pitch, high and low and game. He taught the kids how to square dance and would dance his kids around the floor at neighborhood parties. The children and their cousins knew how to square dance, waltz, and two-step.

He loved a good joke and April Fools Day pranks. Rarely did spankings happen in their home. When the children grew a bit older, they ganged up on him, wrestled him to the floor and administered a spanking to him!

He was active in farming and ranching at the time. He considered running for the office of the Cheyenne County Treasurer. He won in the election and served that office for four years. He then moved his family to Sidney.

While county treasurer, Jim was not overly impressed with the county sheriff serving in office at the time. He knew he could do the job better. He ran for Sheriff because he felt it was his duty to challenge the current office holder. He won the election. “In this, he excelled and came into the love and respect of all law abiding citizens who came into contact with him”.

He did real law enforcement work that no one heard about. He learned of two kids, a boy and a girl, that had run away to get married. Jim found them, and kept them in his office. The boy was with the sheriff, the girl with the sheriff’s daughter, who worked in the county clerk’s office. There had been some kind of a sexual encounter between the young girl and her father. She ran away. Jim arranged a way for the girl to move to Omaha to live with an aunt and away from her father.

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