Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Robert W. NELSON, Joliet; born in Granville, Washington Co., N.Y., Sept 20, 1851; at the age 
of 15, he moved to Schenectady, N.Y., and entered the Union School, where he remained for 
two years; he then entered the dry goods store of H. Ostrom & Co., and, after a few months' 
stay there, obtained a situation in the drug store of A. Truaz & Co., where he remained for 
two years; by that time he was taken with the Western fever, and followed the advice of that 
astute philosopher, Horace Greeley, went West, and located in Chicago in the spring of 1871; 
here, in conjunction with his brother, he started in the coal trade, and afterward added 
that of clothing; the clothing store was moved to Braidwood in 1875; in 1876, he withdrew 
from the firm of Nelson Brothers & Barhgdt, they continuing in the coal trade in Chicago, 
while he continued the clothing business at Braidwood until the fall of 1877, when he 
closed up that business, and commenced the publication of the Joliet News.