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Senate Years of Service: 1895-1923 Party: Republican
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NELSON, Knute, a Representative and a Senator from Minnesota; born in Voss, Norway, February
2, 1843; immigrated to the United States in 1849 with his mother, settled in Chicago, Ill.; moved to
Wisconsin in 1850; attended the common schools and Albion Academy, Albion, Wis.; taught school;
served as a private and noncommissioned officer with the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry during the Civil
War; wounded and taken prisoner at Port Hudson, La., 1863; at the close of the war he returned to
Albion College and completed the course; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced
practice in Cambridge, Wis.; member, Wisconsin assembly 1868-1869; moved to Alexandria,
Douglas County, Minn., in 1871; county attorney 1872-1874; member, State senate 1874-1878;
presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1880; member of the board of regents of the
University of Minnesota 1882-1893; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and
Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1889); was not a candidate for renomination in 1888;
elected Governor of Minnesota in 1892; reelected in 1894 and served until January 31, 1895, when
he resigned, preparatory to becoming Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate
in 1895; reelected in 1901, 1907, 1912, and 1918 and served from March 4, 1895, until his death;
chairman, Committee on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and Its Tributaries (Fifty-fourth
through Sixtieth Congresses), Committee on Public Lands (Sixtieth through Sixty-second Congresses),
Committee on Commerce (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on the Five Civilized Tribes of
Indians (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Private Land Claims (Sixty-fifth
Congress), Committee on the Judiciary (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses); died on a train
near Timonium, Md., April 28, 1923, while en route to his home; interment in Kinkead Cemetery,
Alexandria, Minn.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Gieske, Millard L., and Steven J. Keilor. Norwegian Yankee: Knute Nelson and the Failure of American Politics, 1880-1923.
Northfield, MN: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1995; Odland, Martin. The Life
of Knute Nelson. Minneapolis: The Lund Press, 1926.
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