J. B. Nelson (1) (1877–1940)

J.B. attended the available public schools until he was twelve years old, spent about five years working in a drug store in Chattanooga and then attended the Readyville College for two years from which he received a first grade certificate. After a period of teaching school and preaching in Mississippi, he attended Nashville Bible School, now David Lipscomb College, enrolling there in 1899. In the winter of 1900 he entered the Dawson Institute at Dawson, Texas.

In March, 1898 his cousin, Gus A. Dunn, secured a teaching position for him in Mississippi. When he arrived to begin teaching, he found that someone had made an appointment for him to preach. Evidently he did, for the next July he gave up his teaching work and began to give his time to preaching The Word, which was his "calling" for the rest of his life. Before going to Texas in 1900 he spent some time in Mississippi conducting gospel meetings. In 1901 he went to Greer County in Southwestern Oklahoma. He remained here for about four years, preaching in dug-outs, brush arbors, school houses, or just any place he could where the people could meet. About a third of a century after that, I was preaching in Greer County and there was a congregation in every town and in most of the school houses.