Nelson Danforth was born into enslavement in about 1851, near Strafford, Missouri. His parents had moved to Strafford from Tennessee with his mother’s owner, Erskine Danforth, in the 1830s. Nelson’s father was a half-white, half-Cherokee man named Donahue. He built a cabin and lived on the Danforth farm, but according to Nelson, did little work for Erskine Danforth. He mostly supported himself by hunting as well as making baskets, chairs, and other items. Erskine Danforth allowed Nelson, his mother, and his siblings to live in Donahue’s cabin with him. In the early years of the Civil War, Erskine Danforth’s eldest son, Jim, relocated to Texas. Nelson went with him and they lived south of Dallas for the duration of the war. Franklin T. Frazier, another emigrant from Greene County, was living nearby. Frazier returned to Ash Grove in 1866 and Nelson, now free, went back with him. In 1870, Nelson was living near Ash Grove in the household of Ransom Perryman and working as a farmhand. On March 13, 1875, Nelson married Catherine Mason in Ash Grove. By 1880, he had established a business as a barber in town and lived with his wife Kate and infant son W.J. Danforth. Though Nelson stayed in Ash Grove at least until 1900, he may have later moved to Chanute, Kansas where a Nelson Danforth of the right age and birthplace was living in 1910 with his wife, Ida, and working as a janitor in a bank. Nelson had returned to Ash Grove by 1936, when he narrated part of his life story to the Springfield Leader and Press. Two years later, on March 7, 1938, Nelson died from a brain tumor, possibly caused by syphilis. His death certificate states that he was a widower and that his spouse’s name had been Celia Minort (Russell 2012).
Grave Marker: Nelson Danforth's specific place of burial within the Berry Cemetery is unknown and there is no individual headstone for him. However, Nelson is memorialized by the inscription of his name (shown below) on the new monument, installed in 2017, for individuals interred in unmarked graves in the Berry Cemetery.
