Pike Township Family Stories
PAULSEN FAMILY
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 340
By Loys PaulsenHenry Paulsen and Loys Paulsen moved to Nichols from Denison, Iowa. Henry had sheared sheep pin the area for three years previously, under the auspices of B. D. Duwa, Kalona, Iowa, before hearing of a house for sale in Nichols and deciding to move the family there.
Henry was of German descent and could speak no English when he began school. His parents, Paul Paulsen and Mary Paulsen, were immigrants, settling in Donneybrook, North Dakota, where Henry was born. They moved to Schleswig, Iowa, when he was an infant. There were six children in the family.
Loys was born in a sod house near Enid, Oklahoma, one of four children. Her grandparents, Thomas J. Bruce and Mary Sue Hart Bruce, were in the famed Oklahoma Land Rush. Grandma always bewailed the fact that Grandpa wouldn’t let her ride in the buggy with him, because she was pregnant with T. A. Bruce, Loys’s father.
It is reported that Grandma Bruce was part Choctaw Indian, but she would never admit to it, so it could never be proven. Grandpa Bruce was of Scottish descent and the Bruce tartan and crest are still available.
Loys‘s mother was Jonnie Leona Gragg Bruce.
Henry Paulsen and Loys Paulsen had three children. Loetta Mae Paulsen now lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has one child, Vicki Jane Mowrey.
Lloyd Marcus Paulsen lives in Iowa City where he is a mechanic for UPS. He has one child, Steven Mark Paulsen, in the carpet business in Iowa City.
LaVonne Marie “Bonnie” Paulsen lives in Muscatine. She has two children, Robin Kimberly McKinney and Teri Sue McKinney, from her marriage to Jim Chown, previously of Nichols. The girls were adopted by Kenneth McKinney after Bonnie and Jim’s divorce, and they live in Muscatine.
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