Mrs. Dagmar Nelson ran a boarding house at the corner of Pleasant Avenue and Hamilton [3456 Wooddale – built in 1887, it is the fourth oldest home still standing according to city tax records]. It may be that Mrs. Nelson began renting her home after her husband Nels died. They had one daughter, Dorothea Nelson Seirup, who lived at Excelsior and Brookside until 1942. Mrs. Nels Nelson, and Harold and Mary Nelson lived in the house in 1933. Dorothea’s son, George Seirup, was living at the Wooddale house in 1942. The Wooddale house is now a duplex, with renters coming and going.
One of Mrs. Nelson’s boarders was Eddie Rickenbacker, who worked on his racing car in a blacksmith shop by the Creosote plant and won several races at the State Fair. He became a hero in World War I, a famous racecar driver, and later President of Eastern Airlines.