The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 973 

FRIDOLF NELSON.

Fridolf Nelson, a Yakima manufacturer of prominence, connected since 1914 with
the Nelson Manufacturing Company, was born in Sweden, March 6, 1872, a son of
Nels Nelson and Maria (Johnson) Nelson, who are still residents of Sweden. The
son obtained his education in the schools of his native country and came to the
United States in 1893, making his way, to Chicago, where he lived for seven
years. In 1900 he went to Alaska, where he remained for eight years and during
that period was largely engaged in mining at Nome.

Mr. Nelson then returned to the States, making his way to Seattle, and in
connection with two others he purchased three-quarters of a section of land a
mile west of Wiley City. Later, however, he sold most of this to a Swedish
colony.	He and his partners organized the Jupiter Investment Company and handled
the land, which they settled with people of their own nationality and thus
developed one of the progressive colonies of the district. Mr. Nelson, making
his home in Yakima, became interested in the Nelson Manufacturing Company, which
was organized in 1914 by John Nelson, who had invented the Nelson fruit grader.
he was joined by Fridolf Nelson and the machine was perfected in 1914, after
which patents were secured. They began the manufacture of the machine on South
Sixth avenue, whence a removal was made to First street, South, in 1915. They
started to sell the machine in 1915 and in the spring of 1916 a removal was made
to First avenue and A street, where they rented a two-story building forty by
eighty feet. They manufacture two-unit machines which sell at four hundred
dollars, each machine having a capacity of front ten to twelve hundred boxes of
fruit per day. They employ seven men and are meeting with success because of the
excellence of their grader, which is unsurpassed by any other device of the kind
on the market. The floor space required is twenty-nine feet and four inches by
eleven feet and six inches and the machine will accurately grade apples, pears
and peaches. being absolutely the only machine that will grade pears as well as
other fruit. This machine has received the highest award at the Washington state
fairs. It is so constructed that one grader determines the size of each piece of
fruit by weighing, after which it is gently dropped into the cups from the
elevator and the fruit is caught in a canvas bag and then drops lightly to the
canvas bottom of the bin, the longest drop being only six inches. Thus all
bruising is eliminated. The graders are made of the best possible materials and
the machinery runs very smoothly and quietly. A variation from one ounce to one
and one quarter pounds is obtainable, and when once the rail is set there is no
variation. The Nelson machine has received the endorsement of many of the most
prominent fruit packing concerns of the northwest. The demand for the machine is
constantly growing and the business is thereby increasing.

On the 24th of September, 1011, Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Mathilda
Anderson, who was born in Sweden and was a resident of Seattle. They have one
child, Herbert, born December 8, 1912.

Mr. Nelson, has never been active as a lodge man or as a club member but has
concentrated his efforts and attention upon his business interests with growing
success. He has shipped his machines to New Zealand and all over the west and
such is the growth of the business that he is unable to supply the demand.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.