National Law Enforcement Memorial Week

National Law Enforcement Memorial Week brings serious thoughts to American citizens who remember the loss of those elected or charged to protect and serve. There are ceremonies all across the Country with higher ranking officials talking about service and commitment.

At Washington DC, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is resplendent with memorabilia and care.Many law enforcement agencies send a representative to the Nation's Capitol to be a part of the program. There are car doors from law enforcement vehicles, each signed with names and badge numbers, remembering one of their own killed in a crash. There are dented gas tanks from law enforcement motorcycles signifying the same. There are roses left. Wreaths are laid commemorating the sting of death.

Toward the northeast corner of the block-sized area, the beautiful low-level, alabaster walls begin.From a bird's eye view, the walls form two facing ellipses. They call attention to the officers killed in the line of duty by listing the names.A particular name important to this area is that of James M. Nelson. The Cheyenne County Sheriff was shot before he got out of his Sheriff's vehicle 20 February 1930.

From various sources of information, some information about this good man, husband, father, and public servant follows.

James Nelson (Jim) was born about ten years after the Civil War ended. He was the eldest of the kids born to L. K. and Anna Dibdahl Nelson. The family moved about the country, going from Illinois to California and finally settling on a farm southwest of Potter, nearly on the Kimball County line. It was referred to as the "south table" area.

Jim was almost thirty years of age when he married Gertrude Rasmussen.Mrs. Nelson was quite hard of hearing due to having been a victim of Scarlett Fever when she was four years old. With a significant handicap that his wife suffered, Jim was seen as the mother and father to the six children born to this marriage.

He knew the children's wants and needs and tended to them quickly. He built play areas out of corn stalks, built teeter-totters, and constructed a merry-go-round. He knew that kids needed room to play and devised ways to make it happen. The family played cards around the dining room table, learning Pitch, High and Low and Game. He taught the kids how to square dance and would dance his kids around the floor at neighborhood parties. The children and their cousins knew how to square dance, waltz, and two-step.

He loved a good joke and April Fools Day pranks. Rarely did spankings happen in their home. When the children grew a bit older, they ganged up on him, wrestled him to the floor and administered a spanking to him!

He was active in farming and ranching at the time. He ran for the office of the Cheyenne County Treasurer, won in the election and served that office for four years.He moved his family to Sidney.

While County Treasurer, Jim was not overly impressed with the County Sheriff serving in office at the time. He knew he could do the job better. He ran for Sheriff because he felt it was his duty to challenge the current office holder. He won the election."In this, he excelled and came into the love and respect of all law abiding citizens who came into contact with him".

He did real law enforcement work that no one heard about. He learned of two kids, a boy and a girl, that had run away to get married. Jim found them, and kept them in his office. The boy was with the Sheriff, the girl with the Sheriff's daughter who worked in the County Clerk's office. There had been some kind of a sexual encounter between the young girl and her father. She ran away. Jim arranged a way for the girl to move to Omaha to live with an aunt and away from her father.

In another incident, the Cheyenne County Court ordered prison time for a young man who had been sentenced for a serious crime (auto theft). The Sheriff was set to take a young man to the Department of Corrections in Lincoln. Prior to leaving, the youngster had to be kept in the local jail. The jail was over-crowded. The only space available was with a hardened criminal. Jim could see some good in the kid. Putting him in that space was not in the kid's best interests. The Sheriff took him to his home instead and housed him there until the trip to Lincoln could be made.

Sheriff Nelson told one of his daughters that he didn't plan to run for the office for a second term. Being Sheriff was having an affect on him. He said that "at first, he could hardly hit anyone, but it became easier each time and he didn't care for that".

In February of 1930, a man named Thomas V. Tompsett had escaped from the Hospital for the Mentally Insane located west of Hastings. Predictably, the man returned to his parents' home.

It was thought that the Sheriff had prior contacts with the man. Tompsett was a veteran of WW1. It was likely he suffered from shell-shock, battle fatigue, or in today's terms, PTSD. He obtained a weapon from his parent's home. After quite a disturbance there, he walked west to the Huntsman area. Phone calls started coming into the Sheriff's Office about the situation.

Sheriff Nelson tried deputizing several men in town. All but one were a little too busy to help. He got Richard Carlson to ride along with him as back up. They must have seen Tompsett on a road near Huntsman. The Sheriff drove his vehicle up to the crazed man.

The man, carrying the weapon he was said to have had, opened fire on the Sheriff, the first bullet striking Jim in the head.The man then shot the deputized, but unarmed, Carlson in the abdomen. He then returned to the where the Sheriff was and shot more rounds into his body.

A passing motorist saw the carnage and also must have seen that it was safe. He snatched Carlson and took him to the hospital in Sidney. Other following motorists found the mortally injured Sheriff and took him to the same hospital. Two days later, on February 22, Jim Nelson passed away. On this date, he and his wife were to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

A posse was quickly formed and headed to the area of the shootings. In time, they found Tompsett.He was shot in the leg. Officials from the mental institution came and collected him up.

Surviving James M. Nelson were his wife Gertrude and six children. One of the children, Ms. Ada Johnson, is 105 years old now and lives at the Memorial Health Center and Extended Care in Sidney.

The funeral was attended by an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 people. It took nearly an hour for the crowd to view the remains.

A quote from a newspaper at the time: "the tragedy that robbed Cheyenne County of the best Sheriff it ever had, a family of a husband and father, aged parents of a son, and sisters and brothers of a brother, is deeply regretted by every right-minded citizen in western Nebraska."

As Memorial Day approaches, many things come to mind. Among them is that law enforcement officers have a tough job to do. It is a job not just everyone can do. To name a few of the qualifications, it takes initiative, awareness, communication skills, teamwork, loyalty and a whole lot of courage. The author reminds folks to be thoughtful of these brave men and women. Please support them and let them know how important they are.