the United States, having decided to make for himself a home and a fortune under the sheltering protection of the republic. He stopped for a short time in Henry county, Iowa, where he worked on a farm for five dollars a month and board, but he soon removed to Mahaska county, where he spent two or three years. In 1862, having in the meantime selected a life companion, he brought his bride to Story county and took up his home on eighty acres of land in Palestine township, where he began farming on his own account. He worked industriously and with good judgment and as he prospered from year to year he purchased more land until at one time he was the owner of five hundred acres in Story county. About 1902 he retired from active labor and removed to Huxley, where he is now living in the enjoyment of comfort and ease. He has divided his land among his children but is sure of a liberal income during the remainder of his life, being also a stockholder in the Farmers Savings bank.
On the 17th of May, 1862, at Oskaloosa, Iowa, Mr. Kalsem was united in marriage to Miss Martha Cleveland, a native of Norway, a daughter of Ole and Martha Knutzen, and of this union nine children were born, five of whom are now living, namely: Severt J., a farmer of Palestine township; Ole, also a farmer of Palestine township ; Martha, the wife of Ole B. Olson, of the same township; Mary A., now Mrs. Knute Nelson, of Polk county; and John F., who is living at home.
Mr. Kalsem is essentially a self-made man, having acquired a fortune almost entirely through his own efforts. His total cash capital upon arriving in America was ten dollars, and although he was among strangers and in a strange land, he bravely set to work to win a responsible position among his fellowmen. This he accomplished and no name is more highly respected in Huxley and vicinity than that of John V. Kalsem. He has been for many years an active worker in the republican party and has served most acceptably as township trustee and member of the school board. He and his estimable wife are connected with the Lutheran church and are earnest workers in its behalf.
AMOS C. HANSON.
Amos C. Hanson, one of the well known business men of McCallsburg, who has been a resident of Story county for over thirty years, was born in La Salle county, Illinois, on the 3d of September, 1870, his parents being Peter C. and Martha (Anderson) Hanson. The father was born in Norway on the 9th of September, 1844, but at the age of eighteen years he decided that the United States offered better advantages to young men of limited 'means and he emigrated. He went to Chicago in 1861, remaining there but a short time, however, as he was engaged by the government to build barracks for two years. At the end of that period