Adonis Haight Nielson (1899-1973)

From the Burley Bulletin, November 3, 1938.

  Longtime Idaho attorney and WWI veteran Adonis Haight Nielson logged nearly two decades of service as Prosecuting Attorney of Cassia County. The son of physician Axel Francis Oscar Nielson (1868-1929) and the former Louisa Haight (1876-1956), Adonis Haight Nielson was born of Danish descent in Oakley, Idaho on December 13, 1899. 

  A student at the Cassia Academy, Nielson graduated in 1918 and soon joined in the ongoing war effort, enlisting in the U.S. Army from 1918-19. While his area of deployment remains unknown, Nielson had returned to private life by late 1919 and had enrolled at the University of Utah. He studied here until 1920 and then continued schooling at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where, in 1923, he received his A.B. degree. Having decided to pursue a law degree, Nielson attended Harvard Law School from 1923-24 and in 1926 achieved his Juris Doctorate degree from Stanford. 

  Adonis H. Nielson settled in Twin Falls, Idaho after concluding his studies, and for a time was a member of the law firm of Wolfe and Nielson, with offices in Burley and Twin Falls. For an unspecified period Nielson held the post of assistant county attorney for Twin Falls County, and in 1928 resettled in the city of Burley in Cassia County, where he would reside for the remainder of his life. On June 25, 1929, Nielson married at the LDS Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah to Jane Anderson (1901-1996), to who he was wed for over forty years. The couple later had three children, Judith Nadine (born 1932), Adonis Haight Jr. (1934-2019), and Gordon Stanley (1940-1998). 

  Following his establishing roots in Burley Nielson was appointed as its city attorney in June 1929. In the year following he was elected as Prosecuting Attorney of Cassia County, and continued to serve uninterrupted terms until 1942 when he was succeeded by Clarence W. Thomas. Thomas' time as prosecuting attorney proved to be brief, as he resigned in May 1944, and just days after his resignation Adonis Nielson was appointed to the vacancy. He continued as prosecuting attorney until 1950, and in January 1949 pulled political "double duty" when he was appointed to another term as Burley city attorney, due to resignation of Kales Eldon Lowe, who had been named as an Idaho district court judge.

From the Burley Herald, January 20, 1949.

  Adonis Nielson resigned as Cassia County attorney in June 1950 and was succeeded by his younger brother Norman (1917-1975), who served until 1960. In addition to practicing law, Nielson was for many years affiliated with the scouting movement in his county, serving as Burley district chairman for the Boy Scouts in 1943-44. Nielson's other civIc doings include time as president of both the Burley Knife and Fork Club and the Burley Rotary Club, and in 1950 served as chairman of the Cassia County Independence Bond drive. 

  Through the 1950s and 60s, Nielson was a member of the law firm of Nielson and Nielson with his brother Norman, and in December 1961 was appointed as a representative on the national council for the Boy Scouts of America. Adonis H. Nielson died at his Burley, Idaho home on May 12, 1973, aged 73. He was survived by his wife Jane and all of his children, with burial occurring at the Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley.