Orville J. Nelson, age 93, passed away on Friday, March 1, 2019 at his home, after a stroke on February 13th which took away the ability to swallow and affected his left side, and eight days after going on hospice on Feb 21st without food or liquid.
He was born in section 29 in the Town of Ellington on November 30, 1925 oldest child of Matthew E. and Jennie Margaret (Laird) Nelson. He was the first grandson of Martin and Elida (Hansen) Nelson and first grandchild of James Hull Laird and Eliza (Gillespie) Laird. He was born and died in the same house in which he lived his entire life, and the same house in which his mother, Jennie, was born July 17, 1895. He walked 1 ¼ miles to the Pleasant Vale / Manley one room school, Town of Ellington School District No.1, for all eight grades. He rode his bicycle to Hortonville High for the freshman year in 1939 when weather allowed, but the next year Shiocton District contracted with George Jones (Jiggy Jones) to operate a school bus which went right past the farm and Shiocton had an agricultural course. Orville switched to Shiocton High for the sophomore year and graduated in the Shiocton class of 1943. During WWII gas rationing caused the bus to shorten the route, so he had to walk a mile to the bus. In high school he was active in the FFA and boxing. Orville had an agriculture deferment from the draft during the war. He worked helping his dad and other farmers: Elmer Root and Alfred Handschke. After the war he went to South and North Dakota to thresh wheat with Tony Bohman, Bill Bohman, and Ed Bohman for several years. They left for South Dakota after finishing threshing oats at home and returned home to fill silo. They always worked for the same farmers at Sisseton, S.D. the Quamen brothers: Norman, Palmer, and Ray, and others just inside North Dakota. Orville played first base for the Stephensville ball team during and after the war. Orville milked a herd of Guernsey cows with over 60 cows on test in the early 1950’s. Orville met Lila at a square dance at the YWCA in Neenah when his sister Arlo recruited him to go to the dance; Orville and Lila were married at the Methodist Church in Manhattan Ill on Lila’s grandmother’s, Maggie C Redden’s, 81st birthday Sunday, February 24, 1952. They spent 67 years together until Lila’s death on Feb 22, 2019 just two day’s short of their 67th anniversary. In June, 1955 the Outagamie County Selective Service Draft Appeal Board classified Orville as 1-A, so he sold his cows and went to what is now the UW –Fox Valley while waiting to be called up. There he studied drafting and math and when he enquired on when he would be inducted the reply was: “We can’t take you. You are 30 years old.” He then worked in the engineering department at the FWD Corp in Clintonville from April, 1956 and did performance test on the trucks for military orders, and other engineering work. He left FWD and worked in the engineering department at Appleton Machine in Appleton before it became Valmet where he often did the calculations and checked the drawings and did design work on super calenders. He became a project engineer at Badger Northland in Kaukauna with responsibility for the manure equipment line: manure spreaders, manure tanks, manure injectors, manure pumps, barn cleaners etc. and would bring the prototypes home to try out on his own farm. He worked for Badger for 25 years and retired. He was an active member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and was chairman of the Tractor Committee which worked on setting standards and requirements for agricultural tractors in the U.S. He also served on other ASAE committees. In 1989 he received the ASAE’s Wisconsin Section Engineer of the Year Award for outstanding contributions to the profession. Orville and Lila traveled many highway miles to get to the ASAE committee meetings held around the country. He farmed part time for all the years before retirement and after he retired he farmed full time with his son James. Orville was active in the community. He served as Town of Ellington town board chairman for 36 years until 2011. Emmett Root had served as town board chairman for 25 years prior to Orville. Orville was the secretary for the Outagamie County Towns Association for many of those years. He was the treasurer of the Hortonville / Hortonia/ Ellington Volunteer Fire Department before Ellington formed a separate fire department. Orville served on the Town’s Planning Commission from its beginning until he was no longer able, and on the Town’s Park Committee from its beginning. In the 1960’s he and Lila were active Outagamie County Farm Bureau members. Orville was an active member in the Stephensville Methodist Church where he and Lila were the youth group leaders for the Stephensville and Medina Methodist churches in the early 1950s. Orville taught the high school Sunday school class at Stephensville for many years, and often served as the lay leader. After the Stephensville church closed in 1966 he taught the high school Sunday school class at Center Emmanual UM Church. He served as the building committee chairman for Faith Community UM Church in Greenville when it was built in 1969. There he taught an adult Sunday school class for about 40 years until he was no longer able. He served as lay leader, worked on many church committees, and chairman of the pastor – parish relations committee. Orville and Lila enjoyed square dancing at Bean City in the 1950s and being members of the Appleton Masonic Dance Club in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. In the 1950s he enjoyed pheasant hunting in South Dakota at Quamen’s, and hunting on his farm in the 1950s through 1970s. Orville was most happy when he was working with his two sons together on any farm task either repairing or constructing the buildings, sawing and skidding logs in the woods, tilling or planting in the fields, or repairing machinery. Orville was always active at accomplishing some task and then onto the next task. He never stopped working and wanted to make good use of every minute.
He is survived by his sons, Robert and James, two nieces and two nephews: Judy Abendschein (Michael Mc Neese), (Mississippi), Shaleen Melvin (Wyoming), and Michael Avants (Wyoming), and Sean (Susan) Avants, (Wyoming). He was preceded in death by his wife Lila by 7 days, on Feb 22, 2019. Their 67th wedding anniversary was on Sunday, Feb 24, 2019. Preceded in death by his parents: Matthew E Nelson, April 2, 1980 and Jennie Laird Nelson, September 10, 1992, and by his sisters and their husbands: Arlo (Nelson) (Abendschein) Sell on Oct 1, 2016, and John Abendschein, (Oct, 1960) and Everett Sell (Aug, 1993), Ruth (Nelson) Avants on April 14, 2015, and Robert Avants. He is survived by cousins and spouses on his father’s side: David Nelson, Jean ( Robert) Kuschel, Nancy (Forrest) Goodrum, Linda Fleming, Wayne Nelson. He was preceded in death by cousins and their spouses on his father’s side: Arlene (Vic) Johnson, Betty (Wayne) Palmer, Dick Nelson. He is survived by cousins on his mother’s side: Doris Larson, Ray (Karen) Laird, Dan ( Carol) Laird, Lee Laird, James Laird. He was preceded in death by uncles and aunts on his father’s side: Sigurd and Gladys Nelson, Nander and Dorey and Barbara Nelson, Art and Lilly Nelson, Manning and Margaret Nelson, Lee and Verna Nelson. Proceeded in death by Uncles and Aunt on his mother’s side: Clifford Laird and Violet (Laird) Milbauer, Charles Milbauer.
Funeral services for Orville and Lila will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. at the Faith Community United Methodist Church in Greenville with Rev. Lisotwel Ayensu-Mensah and Rev. David Farina officiating. Visitation will be held at the church on Friday from 4-7 p.m. and also on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until the time of service. Lunch follows the service. Burial will be in the Ellington Union Cemetery in the spring.