JOHN FAABORG.
One of the enterprising farmers of Sharon township, Audubon county, Iowa, the owner of a hundred and forty acres of splendid farming land in this township, is John Faaborg, who was born September 15, 1858, in Denmark, the son of Simon and Dorothy Faaborg, also natives of Denmark, who came to America in 1875, when their son John was seventeen years old, and located in Clinton county, where they rented a farm for five years. At the end of this period they moved to Shelby county, Iowa, and settled in Clay township, where they farmed for a time. Simon Faaborg died in Audubon county, July 4, 1899. His wife, however, had died many years previously, in 1875, shortly after their arrival in America. She had been the mother of six children.
After receiving a good education in the schools of his native land, John Faaborg worked out as a farm hand and came with his parents to America in 1875. After arriving in this country he worked out as a farm hand, until 1881, when he moved to Audubon county, and purchased forty acres of land, practically all of which was raw prairie. Mr. Faaborg broke the sod for the first time, paying seventeen dollars an acre for the first forty acres and eventually increased his acreage until he now owns a hundred and forty acres, upon which he has invested six thousand dollars in buildings, fences, drains and other improvements. Ordinarily, he raises sixty acres of corn, which averages fifty bushels to the acre, and twenty-five acres of small grain, all of which he feeds to his hogs and cattle. From eighty to one hundred head of hogs are raised every year on the Faaborg farm.
John Faaborg was married in 1881 to Mary Petersen, daughter of Mads Petersen. Eleven children were born to this union as follow: Christian, Simon, Mads, Hans, Christena, Axel, Anna, Edith, Lydia, Anton and Otto. Of these children, Christian married Christena Olsen, and they have two children, Frederick and Christena; Hans married Mary Grave, and Anton married Helga Jacobsen; Christena married Martin Larson, and they have one child. After the death of Christian Faaborg's wife he was married to Dagmar Jensen, and by this second marriage there have been two children born, Mary and Rose.
John Faaborg is a member of the Danish Lutheran church, and was a trustee in this church. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Faaborg has served as school director in his township, and has always been interested in maintaining good schools in Sharon township. He is a man of modest and unassuming demeanor, who, although he is interested in public questions and the community welfare, has devoted his time and efforts principally to the interests of his family and to his vocation. Possessed with a natural liking for farming he has been very successful, and in his adopted country has been able to carve out a comfortable home where he will be able to live during his declining years in peace and comfort. John Faaborg has the good will of all his neighbors who respect him for his sterling manhood and unfailing integrity.
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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. 530-531.
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