ISAAC JASPER NELSON: SHERIFF GREER COUNTY OKLAHOMA
Below is a REPRINT of an article about my g-g grandfather, I am posting to look for others who may have this Nelson line, and also to help those who may be searching this line, if you would like to share information, consider emailing me....
* * *
Isaac Jasper Nelson: "He Kept Peace Without A Gun," MANGUM (Okla) STAR-NEWS, June 29, 1995, Thursday.
Issac Jasper Nelson was the sheriff of Old Greer county in the day of furious activity by the cattle and horse thief, the gambler, gunslinger and assorted other badmen, and he had the reputation of always being able to get his man.
But what may come as a shock to the young TV fan of today is the fan of today is the fact that Nelson himself rarely used a gun to arrest the worst of the badmen of that time. To him, a gun was merely something to leave behind on the seat of his buggy or in the sheriff's office.
Old settlers still living in Greer County remember Nelson as a man of daring and considerable persuasiveness. How else could he arrest a wanted man just by crooking his finger?
There were arrests involving hours of planning and the utmost in imagination, as the area the sheriff served was greater in square miles than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware and the horse was his only transportation.
In a poltical campaign, of which Nelson had several, it sometimes would take him several weeks to cover the county by horse, and horse and buggy.
In this area now are Jackson, Harmon and Greer counties and the southern half of Beckham county.
Nelson's wife performed hostess duties that would send many a modern woman scampering for frozen dinners and kitchen help. "It was not unusual" said John Nelson, a son, "For my father, without advance notice to my mother, to bring home for lunch as many as 40 persons." And if all were at home at the same time, the Nelsons had 14 of their own to feed. There were seven sons and seven daughters.
Nelson, a dapper figure in his white vest, would walk down the street inviting friends on both sides "to join him for dinner."
It was these friends and others like them who kept him in office for roughly 15 years, although the terms he served were not continuous. Alternating with him in terms was Sam Houston Tittle, a ranch foreman, who turned law enforcement, and was first elected sheriff in 1887.
In several of the races between Tittle and Nelson only a handful of votes separated the winner from the loser. But the record shows that there was never a contest over the outcome of any of them.
For about 40 years, one or the other wore the badge of Sheriff.
On a train trip to Oregon to pick up a prisoner, Sheriff Nelson suffered a light stroke which partially paralyzed one side of his face. The Johnson county, Texas, native never ran for office after his 1914 term expired.
Once when he was disarming a prisoner, the prisoner became unruly and almost ripped off the white vest, the sheriff usually wore.
"Why didn't you use your gun?" a friend asked. "And cripple him," Nelson replied. "Why should I do that when I can handle the situation without it?"
Handling situations without violence turned out to be the trademark of Nelson. This prompted the present Greer county judge, Percy Powers to say, "Nelson was a high class and honorable man, and he wasn't afraid of the devil."
Powers had been a resident of Greer County since 1889, and was in his 27th year as county judge.
Nelson once kicked in a window of a commercial building in Mangum, and raided a gambling party he found in progress. One of the party fired a gun at him but missed. Nelson then entered the building through the broken window and without a gun rounded up more than a dozen gamblers and marched them off to jail.
On another occasion when he was trying to trap a well known gambler he affected a disguise quite successfully.
This was in the day before modern makeup technique and the success of it doubtless was a tribute to his flair for showmanship. Even close friends failed to recognize him as he ambled down a Mangum street and into a wagon yard where the gambler had taken quarter temporarily.
Nelson died in 1927 at the age of 72.
There were numerous arrests for drunkeness in the days before statehood but it was the policy of Nelson to release them to go home if they'd go. Otherwise, he'd lock them up in jail.
It was Nelson who enforced the closing of the saloons in Mangum and Greer county after Oklahoma became a state in accordance with the newly adopted prohibition.
Fifty-two years later the first liquor permit issued in Greer County after the repeal of prohibition was obtained by Mangum businessman Border Nelson, youngest son of the old sheriff.
*************
Editor's Note: Article was submitted for publication to Mangum Star-News by Mrs. Dock (Minnie) Nelson. Jasper was grandfather of Dock Nelson. Same article was printed in the Daily Oklahoman many years ago.
More Replies:
-
Re: ISAAC JASPER NELSON: SHERIFF GREER COUNTY OKLAHOMA
Carolyn Creel 7/05/08
-
Re: ISAAC JASPER NELSON: SHERIFF GREER COUNTY OKLAHOMA
David Worthen 10/14/07