Cleland Kinloch Nelson (May 23, 1852 - February 12, 1917) was the Third Bishop of the

U.S. state of Georgia Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west by ...

and the first bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with jurisdiction over middle and north Georgia. It is in Province IV of the Episcopal Church and its cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Phi ...

. Nelson was the 160th

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

(ECUSA).

Early and family life

Nelson was born in 1852 to Julia Ann Rogers Nelson and her husband, Keating Lewis Simons Nelson (1819-1898) at Cobham, a plantation in

Albemarle County, Virginia Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Char ...

. He had two older brothers, Dr. Hugh Nelson (1842-1903) and Francis K. Nelson (1845-1864), as well as sisters Margaret Nelson (1843-1858), Elizabeth Harrison Nelson Mason (1846-1945) and Celia Hamilton Nelson (1848-1929) and younger brothers Rev. Keating Simons Nelson Jr. (1856-1919) and William Meade Nelson (1859-1843). His father owned a plantation, and about 35 enslaved people in 1850. His grandfather was U.S. Congressman

Hugh Nelson Hugh Nelson may refer to: *Hugh Nelson (Australian politician) (1833–1906), Premier of Queensland, Australia * Hugh Nelson (American politician) (1768–1836), U.S. Representative from Virginia *Hugh Nelson (Canadian politician) (1830–1893), Can ...

(1768-1836) and his paternal great-grandfather Thomas Nelson (1738-1789) had signed the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

and served as Governor of Virginia. An uncle of the same name, Cleland Kinloch Nelson (1814-1890), was an Episcopal priest in Maryland. His elder brothers both served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Hugh Nelson rose to become a captain in the

4th Virginia Cavalry The 4th Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia. History The Virginia 4th Cavalry comp ...

and on the staff of General R.S. Ewell, and was commended for his actions at the

Battle of Port Republic The Battle of Port Republic was fought on June 9, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Port Republic w ...

. His other brother, Francis K. Nelson, enlisted in the Rockbridge Light Artillery battery, transferred to the

1st Virginia Cavalry The 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia. Organization The 1st Virginia Cavalry com ...

, then the

2nd Virginia Cavalry The 2nd Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia. The unit was organized by Colonel Jubal E ...

and was promoted to sergeant a month before being mustered out and dying in May, 1864. Nelson attended St. John's College in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

and graduated with an A.B. degree in 1872. He received a D.D. degree from the

University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of ...

in 1891, and another D.D. degree from the

Berkeley Divinity School Berkeley Divinity School, founded in 1854, is a seminary of The Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with Andover Newton Theological School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Berkeley is one of the three "Partners on the Quad," ...

in 1892. Nelson married Maria Bruce Matthews of

Port Tobacco, Maryland Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland. Overview This was historical ...

in 1877, but they had no children.

Career

Nelson was ordained as a deacon by Maryland's bishop

Pinkney Pinkney may refer to: People Surname *Alan Pinkney (born 1947), English footballer *Andrea Davis Pinkney (born 1963), American children's author *Bill Pinkney (1925–2007), American performer and singer, member of The Drifters *Bob Pinkney (bo ...

in 1875, and Nelson was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop

William Bacon Stevens William Bacon Stevens (July 13, 1815 – June 11, 1887) was the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. Biography Stevens was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover and later studied medicine at Dartmouth College and the Medical ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1876. Nelson served as rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist in what became Philadelphia's

Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to: Places Australia * Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region United States * Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County * Ger ...

neighborhood (1876-1882), then accepted a position as rector of

Church of the Nativity The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity,; ar, كَنِيسَةُ ٱلْمَهْد; el, Βασιλική της Γεννήσεως; hy, Սուրբ Ծննդեան տաճար; la, Basilica Nativitatis is a basilica located in B ...

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

(1882-1892) (then in the

Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania The Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania is one of the dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It was founded in 1905 as the Diocese of Harrisburg, separating from the original Diocese of Central Pennsylvania no ...

but since 1904 the cathedral of the

Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem covers fourteen counties in Pennsylvania to the north and west of Philadelphia. The current bishop, the Rt. Rev. Kevin Donnelly Nichols, Kevin D. Nichols, was elected as Bishop on April 28, 2018, and consecrat ...

). After two higher profile churchmen refused to accept offers to lead the

Episcopal Diocese of Georgia The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, USA is one of 20 dioceses that comprise Province IV of the US Episcopal Church, and is a diocese within the worldwide Anglican Communion. The current bishop is Frank S. Logue, who succeeded Scott Anson Benha ...

, Nelson accepted the offer made to him. He was consecrated as Bishop on February 24, 1892, in St. Luke's Church, Atlanta, by bishops including

Charles Todd Quintard Charles Todd Quintard (December 22, 1824 – February 16, 1898) was an American physician and clergyman who became the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee and the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South. Medical car ...

of Tennessee,

William B. W. Howe ''For the railroad engineer and architect (son of the bishop) see W. B. W. Howe, Jr.'' William Bell White Howe (March 31, 1823 – November 25, 1894) was the sixth Diocesan bishop, Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina (before 2012), Sout ...

of South Carolina and Theodore B. Lyman of North Carolina as well as bishops Whitehead, Rulison, Coleman, Jackson and Watson. Rt. Rev. Nelson served as Bishop of the

until its split into two dioceses in 1907, when he chose to become the first bishop of the

. As bishop, Nelson had challenged the Diocese of Georgia to grow, and it did. From 1893 until 1906, the diocese grew from 88 missions to 108 missions, and its 6,292 communicants of 1893 swelled to 9,229 by 1906. During that same time period, sixty-two church buildings were built in the diocese. Rt.Rev. Nelson also supported African Americans within his diocese to the extent permitted by social mores, consecrating the first and only African American deaconess,

Anna Alexander Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (circa 1865 – September 24, 1947) was the first and only African-American consecrated a deaconess in the Episcopal Church. She served in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia during her entire career, and may be remem ...

, in 1907. Addressing the second annual meeting of the diocese's council of colored churchmen at the Church of the Good Shepherd, he described Alexander as "a devout, godly and respected colored woman," and ordained her as a

deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is, in modern times, a usually non-ordained ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a limited ...

(she would become the Episcopal Church's first and only African American deaconess). At the time of the diocesan separation later that year, the Diocese of Atlanta (northwestern Georgia) was created with 28 churches and missions. The remaining Diocese of Georgia consisted of 24 churches (including deaconess Alexander's Church of the Good Shepherd). Nelson's publications included collections of ''Episcopal Addresses'' and ''Occasional Sermons'', as well as editorial articles in ''The Church in Georgia''.

Death and legacy

Nelson died February 12, 1917, at the age of 65, after serving as a bishop for 25 years. He was buried at

Westview Cemetery Westview Cemetery, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest civilian cemetery in the Southeastern United States, comprising more than , 50 percent of which is undeveloped. ( Georgia National Cemetery, for military veterans and their families, ...

in Atlanta, near his friend (and church founder) Thomas Egleston.

References

Sources

*''The Episcopal Church in Georgia 1733-1957'', by Henry Thompson Malone published by The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Atlanta, 1960 {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Cleland 1852 births 1917 deaths People from Atlanta St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) alumni Berkeley Divinity School alumni Sewanee: The University of the South alumni People from Albemarle County, Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War People from Georgia (U.S. state) Episcopal bishops of Atlanta 19th-century American Episcopalians Episcopal bishops of Georgia