Nelson is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northwestern Choctaw County,

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, United States. It is six miles north of Soper. Spencer Academy, a Choctaw Nation school, was moved here from Spencerville. A United States Post Office was established at Nelson, Indian Territory on March 10, 1881, and operated until November 30, 1954. Until September 15, 1881, the official name of this post office was Nelsons. Nelson is named for Cole E. Nelson, prominent Choctaw Indian and National Attorney of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding t ...

. Until the advent of Oklahoma's statehood Nelson was located in

Kiamitia County Kiamitia County, also known as Kiamichi County, was a political subdivision of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. The county formed part of the nation's Pushmataha District, or Third District, one of three administrative super-regions. Kiamiti ...

(Kiamichi County), a part of the

Apukshunnubbee District Apukshunnubbee District was one of three provinces, or districts, comprising the former Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. Also called the Second District, it encompassed the southeastern one-third of the nation. The Apukshunnubbee District was ...

of the Choctaw Nation.Morris, John W. ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1986), plate 38. Nelson's livelihood as a commercial and population center was threatened after the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway built its tracks east of Nelson, passing instead through the communities of Antlers, Hamden, Speer and Hugo. Although it retained a lively community for decades following the railroad's construction in the 1880s, the towns along the railroad sapped it of potential commercial success. Nelson continues to be home to several families, and as such remains the area's oldest settlement.

References

Unincorporated communities in Choctaw County, Oklahoma Unincorporated communities in Oklahoma Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-geo-stub