LARSON, Hans Christian 1843-1895

LARSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 9/29/2011 at 20:23:09

Hans Christian Larson
B: Mar. 3, 1843
D: Nov. 2, 1895

#1:

Hans Christian came to the United States in 1888 with his daughter, Hanna Marie, her English name was Hannah Mary, whom they called Mary. His brother, Henry Christian Larson, who immigrated in 1872, was well established as a shoe-maker in Saint Ansgar, Iowa, and he urged Hans and his family to come to this country.

Hans and his daughter, Mary, left Norway on the sailing ship Iceland to establish his shoe making business in Carpenter, Iowa before his wife and the younger children came to America. They settled in Carpenter, Iowa, only a few miles from Saint Ansgar.

The following article appeared in the Saint Ansgar Enterprise:

May 23, 1888 H.C. Larson, a brother of Henry Larson of this place, arrived here direct from the old country last week. Like his brother, he is a shoe maker and we learn that he intends to locate in Carpenter where he will open a shop.

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#2:

Hans' wife, Maren and six young children came to the U.S. in September of 1890. The following letter is an account of their voyage wirtten by Henry Alfred Larson, their son:

NOTES OF TRIP FROM NORWAY TO AMERICA

Our family lived in Larvik on Tostrand Street about a mile from the Lutheran Church where my father, Hans Christian Larson, was an elder. I had gone to school for five years in Larvik. The school was a six story building, and would be like a military school here. Boys and girls were separated.

My oldest brother, Hilbert, was a sailor, and was on the same ship on which we sailed to America. Laura, my oldest sister was married, and she remained in Norway.

Hans Christian Larson, my father, and Mary, my sister, had left Larvik in May of 1888 to establish a shoe making business in Carpenter, Iowa. He had written that we should now come. On September 19, 1890 Maren, my mother, and six children (Nels-17, Hilda-15, Henry-12, Hjalmar-10, Johnnie-8, and Anton-6) started the trip to the United States.

Because large ships could not pass through the Fjords, we left larvik on a smaller boat at 9:00 p.m. for Oslo, then called Christiania. The following day we left on a 12 day trip to America on the ship "Thingvilla". We arrived in New York October 2, 1890.

After disembarking we passed through Immigration which took about an hour. Then we went by small boat or ferry to Ellis Island, then called Castle Gardens. There we were divided into groups according to destination, and waited until our train arrived.

We rode the New York Central to Chicago. There we rode a horse-drawn street car to transfer to the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul.

Three days after leaving New York, we arrived in Mason City, Iowa, at 11:00 o'clock at night. We were so tired, and father was not there. He had been there every evening for a long while waiting for us, but this night he worked late and decided to rest.

We rode a freight train from Mason City to Carpenter, and very early the following morning we found our home. It was a very happy reunion.

--Henry Alfred Larson

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#3:

OBITUARY--

Hans Christian did very well with his shoe making business, but in October of 1895, he became ill with pneumonia, and died one week later.

The following is his obituary as it appeared in the Saint Ansgar Enterprise:

The latter part of last week came the news from Carpenter that Mr. H.C. Larson, brother of Henry Larson of St. Ansgar, was not expected to live and Saturday that grim reaper, death, claimed him for its victim and robbed a home of a kind husband and a loving father.

Hans Christian Larson was born March 3, 1843, at Hedrum near Larvik, Norway, and was therefore at the time of his death, November 2, 1895, lacking one day of fifty-two years and eight months of age. He grew to manhood at the place of his birth, married and lived there until 1888, when he came to Carpenter, Iowa, and engaged in the shoe business in which he continued until the time of his death. He had never been a healthy man and about four months ago was taken down with partial paralysis from which he never recovered although at one time this fall he was able to be out and was down to St. Ansgar and to Osage.

In all his sickness and when he thought that the end was near he was resigned in the faith that death does not end all but opens the door to greater possibilities in a life beyond. Nine children were born to them. The two eldest are not in this country, but the eldest daughter who was married remained in the old country and the eldest son is a sailor. One married daughter, Mrs. Miller, resides in Osage and another daughter, Hilda, was married only the Wednesday before her father's death to Charles Zwerneman.

Five younger children live at home. The funeral was held at the Carpenter school house, Rev. S. Olson officiating, who spoke in both the English and Norwegian languages. It was very largely attended by sympathetic friends, for he was a man of quiet disposition whose many qualities won him many friends. His sorrowing family have the heartfelt sympathies of all.

[Submitted to IaGenWeb by Kathy Pike, 9/2011]