HANSON, Jesse S.

HANSON, ALHBERG, MOODY, BOEYE, HUBBARD

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/5/2014 at 13:42:20

HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 541-43. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

BIOGRAPHY ~ JESSE S. HANSON

Jesse S. Hanson, a representative citizen of Clear Lake Iowa, has for years been a prominent factor in the real estate activities of this place. He was born in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, November 11, 1870, a son of Nelson Hanson, a retired resident of Clear Lake.

Nelson Hanson was born in the town of Laholm, Sweden, January 8, 1836 (sic, his gravestone give the date as January 18), a son of Hans Peterson and his wife, nee Petervuella Alhberg, who lived and died in Sweden. His father was a land owner and by trade was a shoemaker. In their family of seven children, Nelson Hanson is the only one now living. In 1854, at the age of eighteen, with a limited education and enough borrowed money with which to pay his passage to this country, he left the old home in Sweden and embarked for America. His first work here was as a farm hand in Lafayette county, Wisconsin. Afterward for four or five years he followed the stonemason's trade, later was employed with a lumber firm, spending several years in Milwaukee and Chicago, and from that turned his attention to farming. He came to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, in 1880, and settled on a farm in Clear Lake township, five miles and a half south of Clear Lake. At the end of three years he traded his farm for a nursery at Clear Lake, which he conducted for ten years, after which he sold out and moved to St. Paul. At St. Paul for twelve years, with the assistance of his wife and daughter, he conducted the "St. Paul Commons," on the corner of Jackson and Eighth streets, this being a home for clerks and laborers, where good, comfortable rooms were furnished a nominal cost. During the past year he and his wife have traveled through the east and south, visiting relatives. Nelson Hanson married in Wisconsin in 1863 Miss Jennie Moody, a native of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and a distant relative of Rev. D. L. Moody. Of their family of eight children five are living, namely: Bertha, wife of Frank Boeye, a Methodist Episcopal minister of [Fort] Worth, Texas; Joseph M., secretary of the Associated Charities, Youngstown, Ohio; Eleanor, of Pittsburg [sic], Pennsylvania, is a lecturer, engaged in charity work; Jesse S., whose name introduces this sketch; and Rev. Harry O., for the past seven or eight years in China missionary field, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of the three children deceased, one son, Benjamin M., died at the age of twenty-four years, a daughter, Irene, at twenty-two, and a son, Ira, in infancy. Politically Nelson Hanson has in the main supported the Republican ticket, voting first for John C. Fremont, but he has always maintained a certain independence in the matter of his franchise. He voted for St. John, the prohibitionist. He has membership in the People's church of St. Paul.

Jesse S. Hanson passed the first ten years of his life in his native county. Then he accompanied his parents and other members of the family to Iowa, and in Cerro Gordo county he grew to manhood and received a public school education. For some years he was interested in trotting horses, and handled in 1892 sixty-five head. Later, with his father, he was interested in the nursery business, and for the past fifteen years he has been engaged in the real estate business, in company with others owning considerable land. Also he is interested in automobiles.

Mr. Hanson has been twice married. His first wife, formerly Mrs. Hattie Hubbard, died in the fall of 1903. His present wife was Miss Zeta Hubbard, she being a daughter of the late O. R. Hubbard of Clear Lake. They have one daughter, Mary, born in 1908. Like his father Mr. Hanson is an independent Republican. He and his wife worship at the Congregational church.

NOTE: Nelson Hanson died November 15, 1924, Mason City IA. Ada Jane "Jennie" (Moody) Hanson was born in Pennsylvania July 29, 1840, and died April 29, 1925, Mason City IA. Benjamin M. Hanson was born in 1865, and died in 1891. Irene Hanson was born in 1874, and died in 1896. Ira B. Hanson was born in 1879, and died in 1880. They were interred at Clear Lake Cemetery, Clear Lake IA.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2014