Hugh T. Nelson

Hugh T. Nelson, M. D.
Nelson, c. 1904
Member of the Charlottesville City Council
Biographical Information
Date of birth	June 30, 1845 Cismont, Albemarle County
Date of death	March 20, 1906 Charlottesville, Virginia
Place of death	City of Charlottesville
Spouse	Mary “Polly” James Gilliam (m. 1827)
Children	3
Alma mater	Washington College, subsequently Washington and Lee University
Profession	Physician Instructor clinical surgery

Hugh Thomas Nelson (June 30, 1845 – March 20, 1906) was a Civil War veteran, physician, instructor in clinical surgery at the University of Virginia and for many years he was a member of the City Council representing the Second Ward. Elected to the new Charlottesville City Council (1889–1900) in 1889; he also served in the Charlottesville City Council (1900–1916) until he was was succeeded by Fred W. Twyman in 1904.

Early life and education

Hugh Thomas Nelson was born in Cismont, Albemarle County, was eldest son of Dr. Robert W. Nelson (1822 – 1908) and Virginia LaFayette Nelson Nelson (1824 – 1897). He entered the Confederate Army in second year of the war (1862) as a member of the Artillery which was commanded by his uncle, Colonel William Nelson, of Hanover County. In May, 1864, he joined the Fourth Regiment Virginia Cavalry, with which he served until the close of the war. After the war he returned to Washington College, and was graduated therefrom in Latin and Greek. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia, began his practice in Halifax county.

In 1874 he entered the University of Virginia, and was graduated therefrom in 1875 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He began the practice of his profession in Halifax County, Virginia, where he remained during the summer of 1881, when he came to Charlottesville and began the practice of Medicine and Surgery.

Career & Public life

Dr. Nelson moved to Charlottesville in 1891. He was a member of the State Medical Examining Board, and instructor in the medical department of the University of Virginia, president of the Virginia State Medical Society, member of the National Association of Railway Surgeons and other such organizations.

In 1885, upon the organization of the Medical Examining Hoard of Virginia, he was elected its first Secretary, a position which he filled until 1890, when he was elected President of the Board, a position which he gave up to become an Instructor at the University of Virginia.

He was a member of the Charlottesville Board of Health.

City Council

Dr. H. T. Nelson was a member of the City Council Board of Aldermen.

Personal life and death

In 1827 he married Mary “Polly” James Gilliam, of Powhatan. They had two surviving children. On both sides of his family he is a great-grandson of General Thomas Nelson. Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the Commander of the Virginia forces at Yorktown.

Dr. Hugh Thomas Nelson, 60 years old, died the afternoon of March 26, 1906 after a week’s illness of pneumonia and is buried in Riverview Cemetery, near his family members.

Notable family members

• His father, Dr Robert William Nelson Sr. (1822 – 1908) was Charlottesville’s city physician until his death in 1908, aged 86.
• General Marquis de LaFayette was present in Richmond at his mother's baptism in Monumental Church on July 26, 1824.
• He was grandson of Hugh Nelson (1768 – 1836), a politician and U.S. Representative from Virginia who died at his home, "Belvoir," Albemarle County, Virginia, March 18, 1836 and was interred in Belvoir Cemetery, Cismont.
• On both sides of his family, his great-grandfather was General Thomas Nelson (1738 – 1789), a signer of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and commander of the Virginia troops at Yorktown. Thomas Nelson was a planter, soldier and statesman. In 1781, Thomas Jefferson declined re-election as Governor due to his inability to serve the needs of a state under siege. General Nelson succeeded Jefferson and served as both Civil Governor and Commander in chief of the Virginia Militia. Both the Continental Army and French forces utilized the skills of the Virginia units in the Siege of Yorktown in the autumn of 1781. Finally overcome by illness in October of that year, General Nelson retired from public service. He died at one of his estates, in Hanover County, in 1789 at the age of 50.

Biography: Sketches of The Dead (1920)

Hugh Thomas Nelson, M. D., by Hugh Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Hugh Thomas Nelson, a distinguished physician of Virginia, was privileged as a youth to be prominently associated with the great war for Southern independence. He was born at Cloverfield, Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1845, the son of Robert W. and Virginia L. Nelson, and entered the military' service in July, 1862, just after the successful campaign before Richmond.

He was first a private in the Morris' Artillery of Hanover County but was subsequently on detached duty at the headquarters of the chief of artillery through the campaigns in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, until the capture of his battery at the "bloody angle" near Spottsylvania Court House. He was then transferred to troop F, Fourth Regiment of Cavalry, Fitzhugh Lee's Brigade. During his cavalry service he had two horses shot from under him, one at Cold Harbor and one at Rude's Hill, in the Valley. After an illness in the hospital he was detained as a courier for General Breckenridge, and went with him to Carolina. While serving as a courier it became his duty to carry to President Davis, at Danville, the first tidings of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was present without the building where the last cabinet meeting of the Confederate States government was held. Returning to Virginia in June 1865, he was paroled at Richmond, and after graduating from Washington and Lee University at Lexington and teaching school for several years, he was graduated in medicine at the University of Virginia, in 1875. He practiced his profession in Halifax County, and then removed to Charlottesville, where he resided from 1881 until 1906, the date of his death.

Dr. Nelson contributed numerous scientific papers to medical literature; was president of the Medical Society of Virginia; was for four years secretary of the Medical Examining Board of the State, and then president of that body, an honor which he resigned to become instructor in clinical surgery at the University of Virginia. For many years he was a member of the City Council, and was instrumental in obtaining for the city a modern water and sewerage system.

Publications

• Hugh Thomas Nelson Diary, 1864, Accession #9760-a, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
• Nelson, Hugh Thomas. The Fallacies of Modern Medicine. n.p., 1886.