HANSEN, A.

HANSEN, ANDERSON, NELSON

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/25/2004 at 15:45:26

Biography reproduced from page 147 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Among the residents of Wesley, Kossuth county, Iowa, who are now living retired, their present comfortable financial position being the direct result of former activity and enterprise along agricultural lines, is numbered A. Hansen. He comes from sturdy Danish stock, his birth having occurred in Denmark on the 14th of March, 1843. His parents, Hans and Bertha Mary Anderson, were also natives of Denmark and there spent their entire lives.

In his native land A. Hansen spent the period of his youth and early manhood, and there he engaged in agricultural pursuits, an occupation to which he had been reared. Feeling, however, that the opportunities for advancement in the new world might prove more attractive than those of the fatherland, he decided to take advantage of them and on the 26th of July, 1882, arrived in the United States. He made his way at once to Iowa, locating first in Hamilton county, but later he came to Kossuth county in 1890, taking up his abode in Wesley township. Here he purchased the north half of section 16, thus becoming the owner of a fine tract of land which he at once began to further improve and develop, and under his direction it became a highly cultivated tract. Possessing many of the sterling traits of character for which the people of Danish birth and lineage have ever been noted, he also acquired the enterprising American spirit which has constituted the foundation of the country’s greatness, thus forming a strong combination of qualities which made for success. Indeed prosperity came to him in such measure that about a year ago he was able to withdraw from further business activity and, removing to the city of Wesley, has since lived in honorable retirement.

Ere leaving Denmark Mr. Hansen had been married, in 1868, to Miss Anna Christina Hansen, and unto them were born six children, as follows: H. M., operating the home farm; Nels, a resident of Hancock county, Iowa; Carl, residing in Wesley township; Jacob, who makes his home in the Black Hills of South Dakota; Kersmina, the wife of S. R. Nelson, of Wesley; and Julius, also on the home farm. The parents are members of the Scandinavian church of Wesley, while the political faith of Mr. Hansen is that of the republican party. Since becoming a resident of this country he has proved a valued American citizen, ever loyal to the laws and institutions of his adopted country. He has never found reason to regret his determination to come to this country for here he has met with a most gratifying measure of success which has come to him, however, entirely as the result of his own well directed efforts. To him rightly belongs the proud American title of a self-made man.