LARS PETER CHRISTENSEN.
Coming to America from Denmark when he was twenty-eight years of age, Lars Peter Christensen, who started his new life in his adopted country as a common laborer, has made such excellent use of his opportunities that now, at a time not much past his middle age, he is able to live a life of comfortable retirement in his fine home in Exira, this county, enjoying the fruitage of his life of active endeavor and the confidence and esteem of his many friends.
Lars Peter Christensen was born in Hjerring, Denmark, January 9, 1855, the son of Christian and Mary (Nelson) Christensen, farming people and natives of the same place, who were the parents of eleven children, all of whom are deceased, save the immediate subject of this sketch. Mr. Christensen attended school in his native village until he was fourteen years of age, at which time he entered an apprenticeship to the brick-making industry, bricks there being made by hand, and for years followed that trade, becoming so expert that he could make four thousand bricks a day. He married in his home village and remained there until he was twenty-eight years of age, at which time he and his family came to this country, arriving on May 20, 1882, at Loreville, Green county, Iowa, where he secured work with the Milwaukee Railroad Company as a laborer, after two years of which service he was promoted to the position of section foreman, which he held for six years, at the end of which time he was given charge of a construction and gravel train, remaining with the company in that capacity for about two years, after which he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land west of Scranton, Iowa, where he lived for five years, at the end of which time he sold that place and bought one hundred and sixty acres five miles south of Beard, Guthrie county, Iowa, which he sold after two years' residence thereon and bought two hundred and twelve acres two miles west of Penora, meanwhile owning several other farms in Guthrie county. In 1905 Mr. Christiansen traded for one hundred and seventy acres of land in section 11 of Hamlin township, this county, and lived there until the spring of 1915, at which time he bought a couple of houses in the city of Exira and retired from the active life of the farm, making his home in one of the houses which he had bought. He also has owned several other farms in Audubon county and is very well circumstanced.
On October 14, 1877, in Denmark, Lars Peter Christensen was united in marriage with Mary Sorensen, who was born in the same village in which he was born, the daughter of Christian and Katrina Sorensen, and to this union ten children were born, five sons and five daughters, of whom all are living save one son and one daughter: Chris married Lena Hansen, of Neola, this state, and has five children; Anna married Fred Christensen and has one child, Ellis; Agnes married Chris Christensen, a native of Schleswig-Holstein, and they have two children, Clarence and Mary; Mary married Walter Micklesen and has two children, Charles and August; Harry is unmarried; Tillie married Walter Lane and has two children, Charles and Peter; Peter and Charles are unmarried. The mother of these children died in Penora, Iowa, June 9, 1901, and Mr. Christensen married, secondly, September 28, 1907, in Exira, Mrs. Katrina Hansen, who was born on August 20, 1850, in Denmark and who died on September 27, 1910.
Mr. Christensen is a Republican, though he is not a politician and has never been included in the office-seeking class. He and his family are members of the Danish Lutheran church and are active supporters of all the good works of the same, being regarded as among the most substantial and earnest members thereof. Mr. Christensen is a good citizen and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 450-451.
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