Afterword
by David N. Edlén, grandson
With future wife Mary Clingan
In the years following the war, my grandfather worked at a series of odd jobs including factory worker, bus driver, and gas station attendant among others. He married my grandmother in 1920, and they moved to a small farm near Dixon, Illinois where they started a family. A few years later, the family moved to Rochelle in order to be closer to Hines Hospital in Chicago where my grandfather needed regular treatments for the effects of the gas attack from the war. About this time, the American Legion was being formed by veterans of the First World War, and my grandfather became involved. He devoted many volunteer hours to the Legion helping disabled veterans gain access to the medical benefits available to them. This work eventually led to full time employment with the State of Illinois Division of Veterans’ Services. He held the position of Service Officer of the Elgin State Hospital for 17 years and was eventually promoted to Superintendent of the Division of Veterans’ Services.
The Diary that Grandfather Nelson kept during his military service probably remained hidden among his possessions until his death in 1952. My grandmother kept it safe for many years, and eventually she passed it on to my mother. In more recent years, this diary has been in the possession of his grandson Philip and great grandson Erik. Mom first showed it to me not long after Gram’s death in 1998. The pages are tiny, a little larger than a credit card. The handwriting is miniscule and barely legible without a magnifying glass. I have handled it several times over the years, but I always found it to be too difficult to read the small pages packed with tiny script.
Some years ago, Mom somehow managed to write fairly complete transcription of the entire diary. Most of the text published here is copied directly from her transcription. However, many of the words remained unreadable even to my mother. Recently, I used my camera-phone to take the high resolution images shown here. By enlarging these images I was able to bring some clarity to my grandfather’s tiny handwriting, and I managed to fill in the remaining gaps.
Now, nearly 100 years after he wrote down these words, young John William Nelson is telling us his story in this very plain and simple narrative. It reveals a part of his life and personality that even his closest loved ones did not know. For me, getting to know a grandfather that I never met with such honesty and intimacy is a privilege that is beyond words. I hope that his descendants and all readers of later generations will “read and learn” the small part he played in a much greater history and perhaps “really feel the meaning of this record.”
John William Nelson: Soldier and Veteran
