N. O. Nelson

Nils Olas Nelson (September 11, 1844 - October 5, 1922) was an American industrialist and businessman who was the founder of the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company.

Nelson was born the son of Anders Nelson at Lillesand in Aust-Agder, Norway. His family immigrated to the United States in 1847. He grew up on the farm of his parents near St. Joseph, Missouri. After serving in the American Civil War, he was introduced into a career in accounting. He became a bookkeeper for a plumbing fixtures firm in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1877, he started the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Once he had established his business, he moved from simply wholesaling items to manufacturing items dealing with the area of plumbing. The company manufactured and distributed plumbing supplies of all kinds, including faucets, water closets, water heaters, valves and fire hydrants. In 1888, Nelson decided to relocate the manufacturing facility from St. Louis to a rural area. In 1890 a suitable location was found across the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois. The complex was designed by St. Louis architect Edward A. Cameron (1861-1899) specifically for the Nelson Manufacturing Company.

In 1890, N.O. Nelson founded the village of Leclaire as a model company town. The development of Leclaire started with the original plat design by engineer, surveyor and city planner Julius Pitzman (1837-1923). Nelson named the community after French economist and businessman, Edme-Jean Leclaire, who had inaugurated employee profit sharing in France. Leclaire was a model cooperative offering affordable homes, free education, opportunities for recreation, and employment at the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company. Nelson implemented profit sharing and employee benefits. In 1902, he founded a cooperative store in Leclaire.

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