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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2016)
12 BOHEMIA NUGGET 2016 G OLD Continued from page 3 The waterwheel ran the mill in the daytime, the electric light generator at night, so electricity was available only from dusk until 10 o’clock. Later that was extended until midnight. At fi rst there were only 50 lights and no ap- pliances of any kind – not even irons. Business rapidly outgrew the capacity of the fi rst dynamo, so he added a larger one. The Nov. 21, 1896 issue of the Eugene City Guard reported, “Andy Nelson, owner of the electric light plant, is mak- ing arrangements to increase the power of his plant and improve the light. Another dy- namo will be put in to be used exclusively for street lighting purposes and the present one to be used exclusively for interior lighting. The plant will be moved from its present site and a new one built on the bank of the river some dis- tance below Main Street (122 N. River Rd). The building is now underway and the change will take place soon. Back water interfered with the wa- ter wheel at the electric light plant here Sunday night and the people had to use lamps and the streets remained in darkness.” Tragedy was no stranger in Andy’s life. While working at the Piper Hardware Store he fell in love with the boss’s daughter, Nola C. Piper. He was just 36-years old when she died in 1902, and he never remarried. They had one child, Ray Nelson. On Nov. 1, 1900, his new steam plant burned down and he didn’t rebuild it. In frus- tration he said, “Every time I start to make money the city has grown and I have to buy a bigger engine and a bigger dy- namo.” He sold his franchise to W.H. Abrams, who worked with Mr. G.H. Stone, the fl our mill owner, to furnish the building and adequate water supply for a turbine water wheel for a new light plant. After purchasing Andy’s franchise, Mr. Abrams moved it after a few months to the railroad track beside the Brown Sawmill. There, slabs from the mill were used to fi re a boiler for a 75-hp Corliss steam engine to power the plant. Visitors were impressed by the 10-foot high fl ywheel that ran the generator. At that time a $1 monthly fl at rate was charged for lights and $3 per month for an iron. Many housewives didn’t list their irons with the light company, and at about 10 o’clock in the morning the steam engine would begin to pull down. The owner would climb into his automobile and start check- ing houses. The irons were hidden, and the engine would perk up again. Electrical power was supplied by this plant until IT burned down about 1927. On July 27, 1935, Andrew Nelson’s life ended quite suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 69 in an industrial accident at the W.A. Woodard Lumber Company, where he worked as an electrician. His body was found on the ground outside of the main building of the re- manufacturing plant. He was doing electrical work and had to reach through the window and fell 20 feet to his death. His son, Ray, followed his father into the electricity business, and by the mid-20th century earned the nickname “Radio Ray” as the sole pro- prietor of Nelson Electric. Ray was a popular local business- man who had a passion for preserving Cottage Grove’s unique and colorful history. He was one of the chief organ- izers of the wildly successful centennial observance of Oregon Statehood in 1959. He was a founding member of the Prospector & Golddiggers Club, which established the Bohemia Mining Days Festi- val. Today, we fondly refer to Ray Nelson as the “Father of BMD”. Thanks to Joanne Skelton and the Cottage Grove Ge- nealogical Society for their biographical research on Andrew Nelson and to the Cottage Grove Historical Society’s publication, “Golden Was the Past, 1850-1970,” both were invaluable to writ- ing this story. – C.W.
