ANCHER NELSEN:

Ancher Nelsen was born on a farm in Renville County, near Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, on October 11, 1904, the son of Nels Peter and Elizabeth (Andersen) Nelsen. Nelsen Attended elementary school in Brownton, Minnesota, and was graduated from Brownton High School in 1923. In 1924 he began operation of his 280-acre diversified farm at Hutchinson, McLeod County. In 1929 he married Ito Zimmerman of Brownton; they had three children.

While farming, Nelsen became active in civic affairs and politics. He served on the District 75 school board from 1926 to 1935 and on the Lynn township board from 1929 to 1935. Nelsen was elected as a Republican to the Minnesota state senate in 1934. He served as state senator from McLeod county from 1935 until his resignation in 1948, focusing much of his energy on legislation concerning agriculture in general, rural electrification, and the dairy. industry. In 1936 Nelsen helped organize the McLeod Co-op Power Association, and he served as its first vice president. In 1949 he was defeated in the primary election in a bid for the Republican party nomination as lieutenant governor. Nelsen remained active in the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1948 and 1952. At the 1952 convention Nelsen served as chaimian of the national Republican platform subcommittee on agriculture.

In 1952 Ancher Nelsen ran again for the office of lieutenant governor and this time was elected to a two-year term. He took office on January 2, 1953. A few months later he was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the head of the U. S. Rural Electrification Administration. Nelsen served as REA administrator until 1956, when he resigned to run for governor of Minnesota, He lost the election to incumbent Orville Freeman and returned to farming for a couple of years. Nelsen served as the Republican state chairman for three months in 1958 until he resigned to run for Congress.

In 1958 Nelsen was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's second district, filling the vacancy left by Republican Joseph O'Hara who had represented the district since 1941. Nelsen served in the House for eight terms, from 1959 until his retirement in 1974.

During his tenure in Congress, Nelsen served on the following committees, commissions, and boards: House District of Columbia Committee, 1959-1974; House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, 1959-1974; Public Health and Environmental Subcommittee, 1959-1974; Chairman, 86 Club, composed of freshman Republican Representatives of the 86th Congress, 1959-1960; Board of Directors, Gallaudet College, a college for the deaf in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of HEW, 1963-1968; Chairman, GOP Task Force on the Federal Service Merit System, 1965; Commission on the Political Activity of Government Personnel (Hatch Act Commission), 1967-1968; Conference of Great Lakes Congressmen, 1970-1971; Republican Party Committee, 1967-1968; and Chairman, Commission on the Organization of the Government of the District of Columbia, 1971-1972.

As the ranking minority member on the District of Columbia Committee, Nelsen played a strong role in legislation affecting the governance of the nation's capital. He was very influential in the creation and passage of bills establishing the Washington Technical Institute and Federal City College. He was also involved in the enactment of the District of Columbia crime bill (1970).

As a member of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, Nelsen was a delegate to the first meeting of the Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group in 1961. In 1964 he was a delegate to the Seventeenth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. Nelsen was the ranking minority member of the Public Health and Environment Subcommittee of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. In that capacity he was influential in legislation concerning health and safety matters. At a "Salute to Nelsen" dinner in 1972 the Minnesota Dental, Hospital, Nurses, and Medical associations, along with the Mayo Foundation, Mayo Medical School, and the University of Minnesota Health Sciences, paid tribute to Nelsen's contributions to Minnesota health organizations and institutions.

In 1972 Nelsen's wife, Ilo Zimmerman Nelsen, died. He married Mrs. Elvem Krasean of Hutchinson in 1973. In 1974, at the conclusion of the 93rd Congress, Nelsen retired from Congress and returned to his farm near Hutchinson.

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The papers consist of Minnesota issue mail, newsletters, legislative records, speeches, press releases, and photographs. These records contain information on small business, transportation, taxation, foreign trade, agriculture, rural development, education, health care, veterans' matters, and Nelsen's election campaigns. In addition are records dating from 1944 from the office of Nelsen's predecessor, Joseph O'Hara, on flooding in the second district, and files from the Rural Electrification Administration, which Nelsen headed from 1953-1956.

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The papers are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Ancher Nelsen Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,732; 18,013

Processing Information:

Processed by: Tracey Baker, April 1977; Leif Kopietz, October 2025

Catalog ID number: 990017334110104294

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These files contain publicity-related correspondence, messages, articles and statements, news releases, newsletters, opinion polls, and speeches. The news release files appear to be comprehensive and the speeches nearly so; the other files contain samples or represent only portions of Nelsen's congressional career.

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Nelsen inherited these files from his predecessor, Joseph O'Hara. They document river and flood control legislation, proposed and authorized flood control projects, and proposed bridges and navigational channels. There are newspaper clippings, transcripts of public hearings, reports, and correspondence on the major floods affecting the second district, which occurred in 1951, 1952, and 1957.

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Nelsen was REA administrator, 1953-1956, but few of the REA files besides the clippings cover this period. The correspondence has been arranged chronologically, as were the first four folders of clippings. Included in this series are materials relating to Nelsen's work as REA administrator, his voting record on rural electrification issues, memos and speeches, official reports and publications from the REA, and miscellaneous publications by local cooperative power associations and interest groups. As a congressman, Nelsen maintained strong interest in the REA, which is reflected in the magnitude of the later correspondence. Additional records concerning the REA can be found in the Bill Files.

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Includes photographs of Archer Nelsen during his various duties as a U.S. House Representative. Many of the images are identified and have accompanying correspondence. Nearly all of the images are arranged chronologically, though some of the undated views are arranged by topic.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Agricultural laws and legislation -- United States.

Business enterprises -- Minnesota.

Drugs -- Law and legislation.

Environmental policy.

Flood control -- Law and legislation.

Health planning -- Law and legislation.

Older people -- Medical care.

Political campaigns.

Pollution -- Law and legislation.

Public works.

Rural electrification -- United States.

Suffrage.

Transportation -- Law and legislation.

Veterans -- Law and legislation.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Persons:

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.

Nelson family.

Organizations:

Republican Party (Minn.)

Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )

United States. Congress. House.

United States. Congress. House. District of Columbia Committee.

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

United States. Federal Communications Commission.

United States. Interstate Commerce Commission.

United States. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

United States. Congress. Commission on the Organization of the District of Columbia.

United States. Rural Electrification Administration.

Places:

Washington (D.C.)

Document Types:

Photographs.

Press releases.

Posters.

Occupations:

Legislators -- United States.

Politicians -- Minnesota.

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