NELSON, W.H., was born in Somerset county, Maine, on the 5th day of March, 1842.  He worked on a farm and attended the public schools until twenty years old; then went to California and engaged in the lumber business until 1870, when he removed to Dakota.  He arrived in Sioux Falls on the 10th day of April, 1870, and for seven years was bookkeeper for B.F. Roderick, who at that time was in the lumber and grain business.  In 1878 the subject of this sketch opened a drug store, in which business he has since continued.  He was president of the city school board eight years, and took a lively interest in educational matters during his term of office.  He is a good neighbor and a respected citizen.

NEWELL, Harrison C., was born at Westfield, Wis., June 13, 1863.  He was reared on a farm, attended the public school and graduated form the high school at Baraboo, Wis., and was a student at the University at Madison a short time.  In 1883 went to Pierre, S.D., and worked for Ward & Frick in the wholesale grocery business until June, 1886, when he removed with them to Sioux Falls, and remained in their employ until they sold out to Jewett Bros. & Jewett in 1888, and was in the employ of this firm until 1889, when he engaged in the real estate business for one year.  In 1890 he went into the wholesale fruit business, but sold out in 1893, and then, in connection with Charles Ransom, operated the canning factory in Sioux Falls one year.  In 1894 they formed a copartnership under the firm name of Ransom & Newell in the retail grocery business, in which they have since continued.  Mr. Newell is a genial good fellow, a good business man, and a good citizen.

NICHOLS, George E., was born near Watertown, Wisconsin, March 15, 1842.  He was raised on a farm and attended the public schools until fourteen years of age, when he entered the machine shops of the Milwaukee Railroad Company.  In 1863, enlisted for one year in the U.S. navy, and served out his time on the boat Pittsburg.  In the engagement on Red River he was severely wounded.  In 1864, received a recruiting commission from Governor Lewis of Wisconsin, and enlisted three hundred and twenty-seven men; was made first lieutenant, and was in command of Co. H, 51st Wisconsin infantry.  In 1866 he and his brother built a large saw and stave mill at Kaukauna, Outagamie county, Wisconsin, which was destroyed by fire in 1871, causing them a loss of several thousand dollars.  He then went back to the Milwaukee shops, and remained in the employ of the Milwaukee Railroad Company until he removed to Sioux Falls in the fall of 1882.  His first work in Sioux Falls was to fit up the first steam laundry in that place, situated at the foot of Ninth street, on the bank of the Sioux river.  He worked several months in doing this, and only received a cap and a suit of clothes in payment.  He afterward rented and ran the laundry for about a year, when he established a dyeing and cleaning house, which he ran for about four years.  He then engaged in the mercantile business, and when he sold this out conducted a butcher shop for awhile. The physical disabilities from which he is suffering, resulting from military service, have taken him from the field of active work, but he is nevertheless able to participate in public matters.

NIEL, James M., was born in Glasgow, Scotland, December 25, 1854, and emigrated with his parents to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1857; attended the city schools until eleven years old, when he entered a paint shop and learned the painter’s trade, in which he has continued since then.  On the 12th day of March, 1884, he came to Sioux Falls, where he has since resided.  He is an expert in his business, as the signs and decorations in the city will fully demonstrate.  He is a genial good fellow, and a good citizen.

NOLAN, Rev. William V., was born at Niagara Falls, New York, April 17, 1854.  He attended the public schools until sixteen years old and for the next five years was a student at the seminary and college of Our Lady of Angels, where he was graduated.  He then took a special course for the priesthood at Philadelphia, Pa., and was ordained a priest June 24, 1880.  From this time until 1883 he was connected with St. John the Baptist church and college at New York, teaching and doing ministerial work.  From there he went to Cape Girardeau, Mo., where he was engaged in teaching and parochial work until he removed to South Dakota in November, 1891, with the exception of one year, which time he spent in St. Louis and LaSalle, Ill.  When he first came to this state he was located at Huron, and had charge of all the Catholic churches and mission in Beadle county until April 13, 1893, when he removed to Sioux Falls, and since that time has had charge of the St. Michael pro-cathedral church in Sioux Falls.  Father Nolan is a scholarly man, an eloquent preacher, a devoted pastor, and greatly beloved by the people over whom he is placed.

NORBERG, S. Albert, was born in Sweden, April 12, 1859.  He worked on a farm and attended the public school during his minority.  He then learned the painter’s trade, and in 1882 emigrated to the United States, where he arrive June 5, of that year.  He worked on a farm one year, and as a painter two years, and then returned to Sweden, but after residing there a year again came to this county, and has since worked at his trade, at first in Chicago, but since 1887 at Sioux Falls, where his brother Peter is associated with him under the firm name of Norberg Brothers.  They are both enterprising good business men and respected citizens.

NORTON, Charles L., was born at Glens Falls, New York, May 26, 1852, and removed with his parents to Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1860.  In 1869 he came to St. Paul, Minnesota, and went into a telegraph office in connection with a railroad.  He engaged in the same business at Duluth and Minneapolis, and finally became the “end man” of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railway Company, or, in other words, was the terminal box car agent of the company.  He was at Sibley and Luverne and was finally run into this county on the 1st day of August, 1878, and dumped, with the title of station agent, at Sioux Falls.  He kept this position for two years and then for a short time became the assistant cashier of the First National Bank, and then a director and cashier of the Sioux Falls National Bank and has been from its organization and is now the cahier of this bank.  He served several years on the school board; was alderman two years; and was appointed county treasurer upon the resignation of C.K. Howard in January, 1886, and remained in that office during the year.  He was elected county treasurer in 1890 and 1892, and again in 1898.  Although the office of county treasurer was not created for him, still he fills it admirably and gives general satisfaction.  After his term of office expired January 1, 1895, he engaged in the insurance business in addition to his official duties as cashier of the Sioux Falls National Bank.  He is one of those genial good fellows who is liked by everybody, and any person having trouble with him must originate it himself.  In addition to his admirable social qualities he is an enterprising, level-headed citizen.

NORTON, Eben S., was born at Glens Falls, N. Y., February 11, 1846; moved to Edgerton, Wis., with his parents in 1860; was reared on a farm and received his education in the public schools and in Milton College at Milton, Wis.  When twenty years old was employed as telegraph operator at Edgerton, and after working at several places was appointed station agent at Tomah, Wis., where he remained until he moved to Sioux Falls, where he arrived October 15, 1880, and since then has been station agent on the Omaha road.  Mr. Norton has been on the school board two terms, is a member of the Masonic order and the A.O.U.W.  He is a good business man and pleasant to do business with, is a good neighbor and a highly respected citizen.

NORTON, John Francis, was born in Schenectady, New York, November 14, 1843, and lived there until he was three years of age, when he removed with his parents to Rouse Point, N.Y., where they resided for a few years and then removed to Union Prairie, Alamakee county, Iowa.  He attended the city schools at Rouse Point.  In Iowa he worked on a farm until twenty years of age.  While residing at Union Prairie he held the offices of town clerk, assessor and collector, giving an official bond of $50,000 as collector when he was only twenty-one years old.  At the age of twenty-eight years he engaged in the implement business at Lansing, Iowa, carrying on the business for two years alone and then with a copartner for one year.  When this copartnership was dissolved he entered into another copartnership in the implement and livery business, which continued until 1878.  He removed to Sioux Falls in October of that year, where he at once engaged in the implement business in connection with John J. Murry, under the firm name of Norton & Murry.  Since taking up his residence in Sioux Falls he has been a very active citizen.  In 1884 he was elected alderman from the Third ward for two years, and in 1886 he was re-elected, serving three years in all.  In 1887 he was elected mayor and served the full term of two years.  He was elected a representative to the first legislature of South Dakota and at the expiration of his term was re-elected.  In 1892 was appointed deputy collector of the internal revenue, which position he held for two years.  In January, 1895, when C.W. Hubbard assumed the office of sheriff of Minnehaha county Mr. Norton was appointed deputy sheriff, which position he held until the summer of 1896.  He is now in the real estate business.  As a business man he has always been well liked; as a citizen has had been active and enterprising, and as an official he won the respect of his constituency.  He is a good neighbor and a steadfast friend.

O’GORMAN, Rt. Rev. Thomas, second bishop of the Catholic diocese of South Dakota, is a native of Boston, Mass., and was born in 1843. His parents moved West, and his boyhood was spent in Chicago and St. Paul successively.  Upon reaching the proper age to enter a theological seminary (after receiving a collegiate course and graduating with high honors) he was sent to France to be educated for the priesthood.  He was ordained in St. Paul in 1865, and until 1876 had charge as missionary of a district in southern Minnesota which now comprises fifteen separate parishes.  In 1877 he joined with the Paulist Fathers in their missionary work, and during a portion of two years preached in the Cathedral in New York.   In 1885 he was made president of the seminary of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and also occupied the professorship of philosophy and dogmatic theology.  In 1890 he was appointed professor of ecclesiastical history of the Roman Catholic university located at Washington, D.C., where he remained until he was made Bishop of South Dakota in 1896.  During his residence in Washington he was selected to write a history of the Roman Catholic church in the Unites States, and Volume IX of the series of denominational church histories, published under the auspices of the American Society of Church History, was written by him.  This volume evidences the fact that no mistake was made in his selection for the work.  It covers a wider field than any other volume of the series, commencing with the first landing of Columbus on this continent, and, advancing step by step, gives a complete account of the development and growth of the church to the present time.  It is a great work, written in a most attractive and scholarly style, and places the Bishop in the front rank of historical writers.
     On the 2d day of May, 1896, Bishop O’Gorman arrived in Sioux Falls, accompanied by Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, and other high dignitaries of the church, and the reception, the ceremonies of the installation the day following in St. Michael’s church, and the banquet tendered him, will always be remembered by its participants as among the grandest events in the history of the city.  It is not too much to say that a more cordial and elaborate welcome was never given to anyone in Sioux Falls; and one of the most pleasant features attending the coming of this eminent prelate to our midst, was the hearty co-operation of the clergy of other religious denominations in making the event a notable one.  Since coming to South Dakota he has labored with great zeal and ability in advancing the welfare of his church, and under his administration some of the finest and most costly church buildings in the state have been erected.  The bishop is greatly beloved by his people; and throughout the state, regardless of denominational preferences, he is highly esteemed, and the city of Sioux Falls is especially proud of her distinguished citizen.

OLNEY, Dr. Stephen, was born in Warren, Pennsylvania, on the 2d day of March, 1846.  He attended the city schools at Warren during his early youth, and then went to Poland, Ohio, and attended the Union Seminary, where he graduated.  He remained in Poland about six years, and after graduating from the seminary studied medicine in Dr. Truesdale’s office.  He attended the Medical University in Michigan one year, and then went to the Western Reserve Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated in 1868.  He then practiced medicine about one year at Struthers, Ohio.  In the spring of 1869 he came West, and located at Sioux Rapids, Iowa, where he remained in the practice of medicine until the spring of 1875, when he removed to Swan Lake, Turner county, this state, where he was engaged in his profession until he removed to Sioux Falls in August, 1877, where he has since remained.  He was the first treasurer of the Territorial Medical Society, and was active in the organization of the Minnehaha County Medical Society, of which he was the president in 1885.  He has been city physician of Sioux Falls, chairman of the city board of health and also an officer of the county board of health.  He is not only learned in his professions, but well informed upon topics engaging public attention, especially those of a scientific character.  But he is best known and most appreciated in the sick room, where his patients are encouraged by his quiet, assuring manner and attentive consideration of their ills.  His practice is quite extensive, and he is acknowledged by his colleagues to be one of the most skillful and successful practitioners in the state.

OLSON, John, is a native of Sweden, and was born March 22d, 1838.  When he was only three years old he lost his father, and as soon as he was able to earn wages worked out on a farm.  When he was seventeen years old he emigrated to this country and settled in Carver county, Minnesota.  He took up a claim and opened a country store.  For ten years he was a justice of the peace, and for several years was deputy postmaster, having charge of the office.  He also held the offices of town assessor and treasurer several years.  He had an interest in a mill that was erected at the place of his residence, and was treasurer of the company.  In the spring of 1883, he came to Sioux Falls, where he has since resided.  In August of that year he opened a store on Phillips avenue, and had a stock of merchandise valued at ten thousand dollars, but on the 6th day of November, following, it was destroyed by fire, and it was a total loss, except $1,000 of insurance.  He then commenced business in a small way in the confectionery line, and gradually worked into the grocery business in which he is now engaged.  In 1897, he was elected city treasurer, and was re-elected in 1898.  Mr. Olson is an upright, honest man, and a respected citizen.

ORR, Alpha F., was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, April 28, 1860; when two years old went to Florence, N.Y., with his parents; was educated in the public schools, Whitestone seminary and Hamilton college, where he was a student for two years; studied law and was admitted to the bar at Rochester, H.Y., in 1882; commenced practicing his profession at Rome, N.Y., where he remained one year, and then went to Camden, N.J., where he practiced law until 1889.  In the fall of that year he came to Sioux Falls, where he has since resided engaged in professional work.  Mr. Orris a good lawyer, and although he has not been a candidate for office he is always an active participator in political campaigns, taking the stump in the interest of his party, and always makes a good speech.  He tries his cases well, is well liked, and is a good citizen.