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| Record Creator: | Nelson, Merrill E. |
| Title: | Merrill E. Nelson Reference Collection |
| Date Span: | 1932-2014 |
| Abstract: | Merrill E. Nelson (1908-1998), United Methodist Minister, was born on December 19, 1908, to Reverend D. W. Nelson and Lydia Jane Durrant Nelson in Althiemer, Arkansas. Nelson would serve forty years of ministry in both the Lexington and West Ohio Annual Conferences in various capacities. The papers included Community Cornerstones DVD and reference material. |
| Identification: | aamc.in.gcah5663 |
Merrill E. Nelson (1908-1998), United Methodist Minister, was born on December 19, 1908, to Reverend D. W. Nelson and Lydia Jane Durrant Nelson in Althiemer, Arkansas. Nelson had eleven other siblings. He later graduated from Philander Smith College. Nelson would serve forty years of ministry in both the Lexington and West Ohio Annual Conferences. He began his career in 1938 as pastor of the Marietta Court Methodist Episcopal Church in Canfield, Ohio. Subsequent pastorates include Delaware-Marion (1940-1942), Columbus Wheatland (1942-1948), Cleveland Mt. Pleasant (1948-1959), Toledo (1959-1965), Braden (1965-1966), Clair (1966-1969), and Clair St. Luke (1969-1987). Nelson retired in 1978 but continued to serve local churches at Broaddus UMC (Springfield) and St. Luke's UMC (Urbancrest) at the request of the bishop. If there was one unique gift he brought to these churches it was the ability to raise funds to pay off individual church building debts. This happened five different times during his tenures.
Nelson's ministry went beyond the local church as well. During his career he served on the secretarial staff in both the Lexington and West Ohio Conferences. This responsibility should not be understood as a clerical office position but rather as secretary for annual conference meetings. He played an active role in the Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) caucus, Columbus Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and Interfaith Campus Ministry at Central State University.
Nelson married Marguerite Sharp Flemming which lasted forty-nine years until her death. He died at the age of eighty-nine years old in 1998.
The original gift included a run of Lexington Annual Conference journals that were transferred to the AAMHC serials collection. There are two publications in this reference collection. One is biography on Bishop Matthew Clair and the other is a printed supplement to the 1932-1933 Cinncinnati Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. There are two other records which seemed not ot be part of the original collection but added later on. They are a clipping on African American delegates to the 1952 General Conference along with two promotional pieces from the Community Cornerstones organziation which promoted historic African American communities in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Materials have been arranged in the following manner.
Arranged by folder title.
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Merrill E. Nelson Reference Collection, African American Methodist Heritage Center - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
| Call Number | Folder Title | Date(s) |
| 2413-6-2: 5 | Bishop Matthew Wesley Clair Biography | 1973 |
| 2413-6-2: 6 | Supplement to the Cincinnati Branch, Woman's Foreign Missionary Society Report, 1932-1933 | 1932 |
| 2413-6-2: 7 | Clipping: Race Methodists Play Prominent Roles in San Francisco Quadrennial - May 3 | 1952 |
| 2413-6-2: 8 | Community Cornerstones, Montgomery County, Maryland | 2014 |
