Charles Nelson

 Carl Diedrich Wilhelm “Charles” Nelson was born in Hagenow, Germany, on July 4, 1835, to John Philip Nelson (1801-1850) and Catherine Maria Friederike Roehl (1800-1868). John owned a candle and soap factory to support his wife and six children.  In October of 1850, John sold the factory and moved his family to the United States of America.  In preparation for the long journey overseas, John had clothing specifically tailored to hold all his earnings, which he had melted down into gold for security. On Saturday, October 26, 1850, the Nelson family set sail on the Helena Sloman from Hamburg, Germany, to New York.

Nearly three weeks into the expedition, the Helena Sloman (which was named after the shipbuilder Robert Sloman’s daughter) took on extreme weather and large waves. The vessel sustained damage to both its rudder and propeller, leaving little opportunity to continue navigating its course.  After being stranded and battling darkness, storms, snow, and sleet for nine days in the icy cold Atlantic, distress signals were answered by an American vessel called the Devonshire.  Quickly, a rescue mission was put in place, and passengers were sent via lifeboat from the now-sinking vessel amidst heavy waves and wind.  John Nelson watched gratefully as his family made their way via lifeboat to safety on the Devonshire.  

As the final lifeboat full of passengers, including John Nelson, started their descent from the sinking Sloman, waves took control of the tiny boat and it capsized with 12 passengers onboard.  The Nelson family witnessed the tragic events from aboard the Devonshire—the family patriarch John Philip Nelson, along with all of the family’s earthly possessions sewn securely in his clothes, were lost beneath the waves and became victims of the icy North Atlantic.  

Fifteen-year-old Charles Nelson would have little time to mourn his father’s passing as his family entered the United States penniless, having little but the shirts on their backs.  Once they reached New York, new widow Maria Nelson cared for the younger children while Charles and his brother Adolph went in search of work in the candle and soap-making business they had learned from their father.

In 1852, the family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, to escape the fast-paced and dangerous metropolis of New York City.  Cincinnati was then booming as the sixth-largest city in the United States at the time, and was a magnet for fellow German immigrants.  Charles continued in the soap and candle trade for a while; however, the thriving livestock industry would convince him to begin working at a local butcher shop.  It is there that Charles learned about grains fed to livestock and why distillation was important to many farmers.  Charles was a quick understudy and eventually found an associate with whom to partner to open his own grocery store; the establishment was called Blersch & Nelson.

Five years later, in 1857, Charles moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to open another grocery store called Nelson & Pfeiffer.  The store focused on three primary products for patrons: coffee, meat, and whiskey. 

A marketing extraordinaire, Charles encouraged his ‘coffee boy’ to deliver his blend to the Maxwell House Hotel in downtown Nashville, where it would later become the house blend, marketed under the Maxwell House name and launch the famous saying “Good to the Last Drop”.

Charles’ whiskey came from several nearby distilleries, but notably, he began selling whiskey in bottles, which was rare in those days.  One popular source for his whiskey was from the Green Brier Distillery in Greenbrier, Tennessee.  The distillery, then also known as Old No. 5 Distillery because of its early DSP number, was built in 1867, making it one of the earliest trademarked whiskeys in the state.  In 1870, Charles made the decision to exit the grocery business and wholly purchase the Green Brier Distillery, renaming it Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery.  He would go on to produce approximately 30 different brands of liquor, ranging from Tennessee Whiskey, bourbon whiskey, corn whiskey, gin, and both apple and peach brandy. 

Now, as a whiskey producer, Charles produced his flagship brand using the Lincoln County Process to identify its Tennessee Whiskey distinction in the same way as both Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel.  However, a major distinction between Charles and his competitors was the use of wheat instead of rye.  The mash bill was composed only of corn, wheat, and barley, with two of their most popular brands being Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey and Belle Meade Bourbon. 

In 1869, Nelson purchased the H.H. Kirk patent for improved distillation and production capacity. This business move helped Nelson's Green Brier Distillery become one of the largest producing distilleries in the United States prior to Prohibition, even in the shadow of both Dickel and Daniel’s.

At that time, the Belle Meade brand was produced by Belle Meade Distillery in Nashville and owned by Sperry Wade and Company, but Nelson’s Greenbrier was contracted to sell the brand. Then, in 1880, Sperry Wade burned, and Belle Meade production was moved solely to Nelson’s Green Brier.

In Charles’ personal life, he married twice. First, he married Louise Brengleman and named his first son after himself, but unfortunately, Louise had died while giving birth to Junior on March 18, 1862.  About a year later, Charles married for a second time to Louisa Christine Rohlfing. These two would go on to have five children together (Emma, William, Alice, Henry, and Louisa). 

Charles was well known not just for his business sense and distilling prowess, but also for his servant leadership in the Nashville community.  He founded and served as President for both the Nashville Trust Company and Nashville Musical Union.  Additionally, it was the Green Brier Distillery that initially helped pave the way for the city’s rail system, though admittedly, Charles had an interest in it because of the transport of distilling ingredients as well as the final product.

Charles Nelson passed away at his home on December 13, 1891, from congestion of the lungs after a weeklong illness.  According to Charles’ obituary in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, “(Charles) built up and added on until his business amounted to a million dollars annually.  He paid over $300,000 in taxes to the government the past year and employed 200 men at his distillery.  His estate is worth over a million dollars.” In the end, Charles’ relationship with his oldest son, Charles Jr. (by first wife Louise), seemed dubious at the time, as the journal continued, “He leaves a wife, two sons, and three daughters.” 

Nearly a year after his death, an article by the Hamilton Evening Journal of Ohio, followed up, cited a dispatch from Nashville saying, “When Charles Nelson, the millionaire distiller died a year ago, he cut off his oldest son, who was his only child by his first wife, with only $400 a year.  Young Charles Nelson, who now lives in Oxford, Ohio, entered suit, and today a compromise was announced: young Nelson receives $10,000 in cash and $20,000 to be held in a trust for his benefit.  The principal is to revert to his stepmother if he dies without an heir.”

After Charles passed, his wife, Louisa, took over the distillery operations.  She is now considered to be one of the pioneers for women in the whiskey industry. Louisa continued building the brand for an additional 18 years, until Prohibition laws were passed in the state of Tennessee, finally outlawing the sale and production of alcohol altogether in 1909.  Fortunately, the Nelson brand was to finally be reintroduced some 105 years later by Charles’ great-great-great-grandchildren, brothers Andy and Charlie Nelson.

Contributed by Brad Martens, Columbia, Missouri