LARS C. CHRISTOFFERSEN.
In examining the life records of self-made men it will invariably be found that indefatigable industry has constituted the basis of their success. True, there are other elements that enter into and conserve the advancement of personal interests, such as perseverance, discrimination and the mastering of expedients, but the foundation of all achievement is earnest, persistent labor. At the outset of his career Lars C. Christoffersen recognized this fact and he has never sought any royal road to the goal of his ambition. He began to work earnestly and diligently in order to advance himself and the result is that he is now numbered among the progressive, successful and influential business men of Audubon county.
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Lars C. Christoffersen was born in Denmark on October 17, 1861, the son of Peter and Mette Christene (Larsen) Christoffersen, also natives of Denmark, the family being residents of the island known as Moen. Peter Christoffersen was a laborer and was the father of three children, Peter, Lars C. and Carrie C.
Lars C. Christoffersen lived at home until 1883, in which year he came to the United States, landing at New York City on May 23. His brother had proceeded him seven years and had located in Illinois. Lars C. Christoffersen came direct to Audubon county, locating near Kimballton where two of his uncles had settled some years before. He first started to work by the month, but the corn crop was drowned out and he went to work on the section for the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. He later went to Illinois, where he worked for a short time, but soon came back to Audubon county, and spent the winter with one of his uncles. In the spring of 1884 he went back to Illinois, where for about two years he worked at various jobs. In February, 1886, he went to New York and lived there until 1888, working at various occupations. On New Year's day, 1888, he came back to Audubon county and has lived here since that time. His parents and sisters, who came to this country in the spring of 1889, also came west. After coming back to Audubon county, Mr. Christoffersen worked on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad section, a job entailing a great deal of hard work, as there were but two men to care for a section. After being thus employed for two years Mr. Christofferson bought eighty acres of land near Kimballton and made a home there for his mother, his father having died in 1890. For nineteen years Mr. Christoffersen lived on this farm.
In 1908 Lars C. Christoffersen was elected recorder of Audubon county and filled that office very acceptably for four years, after which for six months he acted as deputy recorder. In the meantime he helped organize the Farmers Savings Bank at Hamlin and was elected cashier of the bank, a position he has filled since that time in a manner wholly acceptable not only to the directors of the bank, but to the large public served through this sound financial institution, he possessing the unbounded confidence of the entire
community.
On December 26, 1895, at Atlantic, Iowa, Lars C. Christoffersen was married to Anna B. Rassmussen, who was born in Denmark, the daughter of Andrew and Anna (Scheming) Rassmussen, who came to the United States in the spring of 1892. To this union seven children have been born, four sons and three daughters, Hans, Alfred, Hazel, Leonard, Edwin, Ethel and Clara, all of whom are living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Christoffersen are members of the Danish Lutheran church and their children have been reared in that faith.
Mr. Christoffersen is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Danish Brotherhood of America. He is a Democrat and when he was elected county recorder had a normal opposition of six hundred Republican majority and was not widely acquainted in the county, but he was elected by a majority of one hundred and nine votes. In campaigning he did not go east of the railroad tracks. Since moving to town, Mr. Christoffersen has sold his farm. The bank building is owned by the corporation of stockholders.
Although the most important public office which Mr. Christoffersen has held is that of county recorder he has held several township offices in Sharon township, among them that of justice of the peace, township trustee and township clerk, and for fourteen years was secretary of the school board. By virtue of his vocation he comes into touch with all the people of his township and is honored and respected by them. He is progressive in his ideas and this characteristic accounts for a very large measure of his success, he being regarded as one of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Audubon county.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 480-482.
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