SOREN S. FAABORG.
Another of the well-known native-born Danish farmers of Sharon township, Audubon county, Iowa, who have succeeded in a large measure since coming to America, is Soren S. Faaborg, the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of land in Sharon township, who was born in Denmark, March 31, 1853, the son of Simon S. and Christena (Allen) Faaborg. The father and mother came to America in 1875, and after locating in Clinton county, Iowa, there rented a farm for five years. The father died in Audubon county, July 4, 1899; his wife, the mother of Soren S. Faaborg, died in 1875, a few days after their arrival in America. They were the parents of six children.
Soren S. Faaborg, after having been educated in his native land, worked as a farm hand for four years, and when he was twenty years old came to America, locating in Clinton county, Iowa, where he also worked as a farm hand for three years. Mr. Faaborg rented land for six years, and in 1882, when he was twenty-nine years old removed to Audubon county, and settled upon the farm where he now lives, and for which he paid at the beginning eight and nine dollars an acre. The farm originally consisted of eighty acres, but has been increased to one hundred and twenty. Mr. Faaborg broke most of the sod on the farm, and has invested since purchasing the place some five thousand dollars in improvements of various kinds. He is accustomed to raise at least forty acres of corn every year, which yields an average of sixty bushels to the acre, a higher yield than is usually got in this neighborhood. He feeds about fifty head of hogs every year, and the combination of mixed farming has proved very successful for him.
Soren S. Faaborg was married on August 21, 1881, eight years after coming to this country, in Clinton county, Iowa, to Kjestena Petersen, daughter of Knud and Kjestena (Boysen) Petersen. Mr. and Mrs. Faaborg have had eleven children, as follow: Dorothy, Signe, Dagmar, Cecelia, Johannah, Agnes, Simon and Knud, all of whom are living, and three children who are deceased, Simon, Johannah and Agnes. Of these children, Dorothy married Sophus Sorensen, and they have three children, Larha, Soren and Eva. Signa married Peter Hansen, and they have five children, Harold, Arnold, Alvin, Ernest and Alma. Dagmar married Hans Jessen, and they have two children, Richard and Carl. Cecelia married Albert Larson. Johannah married Oscar Sorensen. The remainder of the family are unmarried and live at home.
Mrs. Faaborg, a native of Denmark, came to America with her parents in 1872. Her father, who was a farm hand in his native land, after coming to America located in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a laborer for two years, and then removed to Clinton county, Iowa, where he worked for the Rock Island Railway Company. After quitting the railway service in which he was engaged for nine years, he removed to Audubon county, Iowa, and purchased eighty acres of land. He is now living retired at Elkhorn.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Faaborg has held several offices of trust and responsibility in his community, having served as school director and as road supervisor. Mr. and Mrs. Faaborg are members of the Danish Lutheran church, and Mr. Faaborg is a trustee of the church. He is one of the best-known citizens of the community, honorable, upright and fair in all of the relations of life, a man who has always paid strict attention to his business, and who has always filled with scrupulous pains his business and social obligations. He is a worthy citizen of this great country, which has become his home by adoption.
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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. 848-850.
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