J. M. Knutsen

KNUTSEN

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 10/2/2005 at 22:01:23

J. M. Knutsen is a member of the firm of Levorson & Knutsen, well known general merchants of Hanlontown. His birth occurred in Bergen, Norway. The son was reared and educated in his native country and acquired a high school education there. At the age of eighteen years, or in 1903, he came to the United States and made his way to Onarga, Illinois where he took up his abode. He was employed as a farm hand in that locality and a year later removed to Iowa, where he spent a year and a half in farm work in Winnebago county. He next went to North Dakota, where he took up a homestead in Burke county. He was married there in 1908 to Miss Clara Hage, of Scarville, Winnebago county, Iowa, after which he purchased a small country store near Lignite and for four years was postmaster of Macroom, but since that time the office has been discontinued. In 1912 he sold out his business there and returned to Iowa, spending a little more than two years in Winnebago county, where he taught in the parochial schools. In January, 1915, he came to Hanlontown as the first manager of the Farmers Elevator, but remained in that position for only seven months, when he resigned in order to purchase a half-interest in the general merchandise business of Nels Levorson, the firm name of Levorson & Knutsen being then adopted. Mr. Knutsen came to the United States a poor boy without capital and today he is one of the dominant factors in the business life of Hanlontown and one of its most progressive, enterprising and successful citizens.

Mr. and Mrs. Knutsen are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church and are most highly esteemed people. They now have a family of four children, Hazel James C., Martha H. and Harold H. In 1911 Mr. Knutsen was naturalized and since that time has been a stanch supporter of the republican party, for his study of the political questions and issues of the day has led him to the belief that the platform of that party contains the best elements of good government. He is now serving as secretary of the school board and he is interested in all the forces and measures that have to do with the upbuilding and progress of the community in which he lives. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world, for here he has found the opportunities which he sought and in their utilization has worked his way steadily upward.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 442.