history

Nelson Gas Engine & Automobile Company was established around 1903 by Thomas K. Nelson. He was the inventor of the Nelson stationary gas engine. Nelson bought a half-interest in a Harlan, Iowa blacksmith and machine shop. He sold his interest in 1892 and took a foreman position at Sutherland & Anderson. He subsequently worked for a time at Ogden Iron Works in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Phoenix Foundry and Machine Co. in Omaha, Nebraska, and eventually returned to Harlan to buy out Sutherland & Anderson and later established his own company. In 1898, while in business for himself, he developed a gasoline engine to be sold on the market. By 1905, he produced his first automobile.