Dr. Reuben Nelson was a son of Abraham Nelson, born October 8, 1782, married Huldah Nelson, who bore him twelve children. They lived at Wales, now Delaware county, New York. Dr. Nelson was born at Andes, New York, December 16, 1818. died in New York City, February 20, 1867. He was a man of classical and theological culture, preaching and teaching in New York State until 1844, when he was appointed the first principal of Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania. He was then twenty-six years of age, a regularly ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. From 1844 until 1872, with the exception of one year when he was presiding elder of the Wyoming district, he was principal of the seminary.

As principal. Dr. Nelson achieved success almost unparalled in the history of seminaries and preparatory schools. His ability as a teacher, his executive skill and financial wisdom, his indomitable courage and perseverance, his moral power, his fervid piety, thoroughly equipped him for his work and made Wyoming Seminary one of the most useful and meritorious of educational institutions. In 1872 he was elected an agent of the Methodist Episcopal Book Concern in New York City, and treasurer of the missionary societies of his church, an office he held until his death. He was a delegate to the general conference of his church in i860, 1864, 1868, 1872, and in 1876, leading the delegation at the last three conferences, and in 1876 was chairman of the committee on the episcopacy. Union College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in recognition of his ability as a teacher, and Dickinson College that of Doctor of Divinity in recognition of his eloquence as a preacher. He was a man of great natural energy, yet calm, quiet and undemonstrative. He was systematic and exact in business habits, and by virtue of a strong pleasing personality exerted a great influence over young men. His great work, his life work, was done at Wyoming Seminary, and that school will ever be his monument. In 1883 his widow, "in consideration of the desire and purpose to aid and benefit the seminary to which the labors of her husband were for many years devoted," deeded to the school the house built by Dr. Nelson, and which was their residence until going to New York, in 1872. The gift was in full accord with the noble impulse of the gentle woman, who was her husband's co-worker and shared her husband's interest in the seminary. In 1887, Nelson Memorial Chapel was erected by friends of the seminary as a tribute to the memory of Dr. Nelson.