John Nelson Davidson was born in 1848 near Galena, Illinois. Two years later, according to the Wisconsin census of 1850, his parents were residents of Jamestown, Grant County. Davidson studied at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska and served as an instructor and librarian there from 1878 to 1886. In 1888 Nelson secured his master's degree at Beloit College, was ordained in the Congregational ministry in November of that year, and immediately opened his pastorate at Stoughton. In the succeeding years he served at Milwaukee, Two Rivers, Dousman, Green Lake, and Black Earth.
Davidson was interested in Wisconsin history, particularly its religious aspects, and in 1895 he published In Unnamed Wisconsin, a history of early missionary work in the state, with emphasis on the work of the Congregational Church. He also produced a number of shorter historical articles and wrote many poems, some of which were published in Madison newspapers during his last years of residence in the city.
In 1943 Davidson left his home in Madison, where he had been living in retirement for a number of years, to make his home with relatives at Crete, Nebraska. At this time his library and papers were turned over to the Historical Society.
