Helgersen, H. P.

HELGERSEN

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/22/2006 at 12:05:20

HELGERSEN, H.P.

H. P. Helgersen, who has for several years been numbered among the wealthier farmers and land owners of Lyon county, and who has an exceedingly attractive home within the territorial limits of the city of Inwood, was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, in 1849, where he was reared on the farm and educated in the public school. After the fashion of the times, as he became older he attended school only during the winter sessions, and did farm work in its season.

As a young man he learned the tailor trade, and worked at it for six years, after which he became a stone mason, and carpenter, a trade he has followed more or less all his life. His father owned a farm of sixty acres in Rock county, and on this Wisconsin farm the young man lived and labored until his father''s death, when he sold out and came to the west, with the desire of securing more land for his growing family.

Mr. Helgersen made his first appearance in Lyon county in 1897, and purchased a quarter section of land within a half mile of Inwood, and a little later bought an additional eighty acres, so that now he owns two hundred and forty acres lying within the present city limits of Inwood. Here he built a fine farm house, 54 by 68 feet, a story and a half high, a barn 44 by 66 feet, a granary 24 by 32 feet, two tool houses, one 10 by 32 feet, and the other 14 by 32, a chicken house and a hog house, a blacksmith and a carpenter shop——putting altogether about $5,000 into permanent improvements for this very desirable farm. In doing this he has only been returning to the farm what it had already given him, as he has made it all out of the place.

Mr. Helgersen was married in 1880, and by this union has become the father of four children: Peter, August L., Hannah L., and Morgan——all of whom are at home and give promise of honorable and useful lives hereafter. In religion he affiliates with the Lutheran church, and in politics is a Republican. For two terms he served as justice of the peace, three terms as school director, two terms as clerk, and has been road supervisor for ten years in Rock county. He was also constable for a term.

Peter Helgersen, father of H. P., was born in Norway, but removed in 1842, from his native land to the United States, settling in Wisconsin. While in his native land he had served an apprenticeship at the cabinet making trade, including all that a carpenter had to learn in his practical work and study, so that when he arrived in Rock county he was the first carpenter in that section of Wisconsin, and did not a little of the building of that early day. He worked as a carpenter the most of his life, and when he died in 1896 he had reached the age of eighty-three. His wife passed away the previous year at the age of eighty-two. He built the first Norwegian church in Muskingo, Illinois, and was an old pioneer in Wisconsin.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson