Nelson, Georgia

"As the marble industry developed in the County, the need for another finishing plant caused The Georgia Marble Company to purchase the property of John Nelson, located on the railroad near the Cherokee County line, for this purpose; and the town that sprang up there logically took the former owner's name. Mr. Nelson was a farmer and also a gunsmith of considerable note, and today there are many Nelson rifles throughout this [area] which are highly prized by their owners.

Since the beginning of the marble industry at Nelson, the stone for many important buildings throughout the country, and many beautiful works of art in marble, have been finished here. Among the skilled workmen at Nelson have been a considerable number from Italy and Scotland, where they were also workers in stone, and some remained to become citizens."

...from the History of Pickens County by Luke E. Tate -- 1935

The Italian angel of Bethesda Cemetery

About forty Italian workers came with their families to live in Nelson in the early nineteen hundreds. They were employed to carve, sculpt and finish Georgia marble from the quarries nearby, and for the most part, they remained in the area until the 1940's. This Carrara marble angel in Bethesda Church Cemetery sits on a base of carved Georgia marble in the midst of Italian family graves -- a beautiful testament to the marriage of cultures and talents in this small Georgia town so long ago.