History of Wexford County, MI. Compiled by John H. Wheeler Published in 1903 by B. F. Bowen Biography Page 175 - 176

NELS P. NORDSTROM

The foreign-born citizens of the United States constitute a large and important element in our national life and as a rule they are enterprising and thrifty in whatever field of endeavor engaged. From all parts of Europe people have flocked to our shores to find homes and fortunes under the fostering influence of a free government, many of then achieving distinctive precedence in agriculture, commercial and industrial pursuits, others rising to distinguished prominence in the learned professions and in the domains of science and art. Scandinavia more perhaps than any other country has contributed to the material development and general prosperity of our northern and western states, and wherever found this hardy nationality is noted for intelligence, enterprise, thrift and a love of freedom, consistent with the highest order of American citizenship. Among the representatives of this nationality in Wexford county, Michigan, is Nels P. Nordstrom, a progressive business man of Cadillac who was born in Sweden on the 27th day of May, 1857. His father was an agriculturist and it was under the wholesome discipline of the farm that young Nels's childhood and youth were spent, obtaining the meanwhile a common school education and later receiving instruction at home from private tutors. When a young man he took up cabinet-making, of which he served a four-years apprenticeship and immediately after completing his term of service came to the United States, where he was led to believe a more attractive field and larger opportunities were to be found than his own country offered. Mr. Nordstrom landed in Boston in the summer of 1881 and from that city came direct to Clam Lake, Michigan, reaching this place on the 4th day of the following August. For some months after his arrival he worked at different vocations, turning his hand to any kind of honest employment he could find, but later he succeeded in obtaining a clerkship in the hardware store of J. W. Cummer, in which capacity he continued until 1893. In that year Mr. Nordstrom engaged in the hardware trade upon his own responsibility and he has since carried on a large and lucrative business, his success being commensurate with the energy and enterprise displayed in the undertaking. Mr. Nordstrom has a well equipped store, carries a full line of all kinds of hardware demanded by the trade, and owns the building in which his business is conducted. His progress since becoming an independent factor in the commercial world has been creditable in every respect and he stands today among the leading hardware dealers in Cadillac, as well as among the city's most enterprising men of affairs. Honor and integrity have characterized his career, his relations with his patrons and with the public generally have been most agreeable and he is held in high esteem by all with whom he has dealings or with whom he comes in contact in business or social capacities. Mr. Nordstrom is a public spirited man and ever since coming to Cadillac has assisted by every means at his command all enterprises for the material advancement of the city. His interest in the social and moral welfare of the community has not been secondary to his efforts along other lines, being a friend and earnest advocate of measures for the general good of his kind, such as churches, schools, charitable and benevolent institutions, in all of which his influence has been heartily enlisted. In religion he subscribes to the Presbyterian creed, being one of the leading members of that church in Cadillac, and in politics he gives his support to the Republican party. Mr. Nordstrom is a man of excellent mental acquirements, having supplemented his scholastic training by a wide range of reading, so that he is now well informed on many subjects, his acquaintance with the world's best literature being both general and profound. He keeps in touch with the trend of modern thought in matters of state and national legislation, and has strong convictions and decided opinions relative to the leading questions and issues of the day. In closing this simple sketch of a well-rounded character and successful business career it may be profitable to pause a moment to learn the lesson such a life tends to teach. It is needless to add that Mr. Nordstrom is a self-made man, as all noble characters with God's help are thus developed. Follow him from his home in the far-away Northland across the sea to a new country whose conditions were so different from those of his own; contemplate his experiences and struggles for years in subordinate capacities, ofttimes obliged to encounter obstacles calculated to discourage, but gradually overcoming everything in the way of success until rising to his present position of affluence and influence, and the reader will have an object lesson as plain as it is practical. It is not luck, influence or inherited wealth that makes such men, but work, persistence, pluck, and a laudable ambition to rise superior to environment. Mr. Nordstrom has lived well and made most of his opportunities and what he has already accomplished may be taken as a prophecy of still greater achievements and a wider field of usefulness in years to come.