CHRISTOFFER HANSEN.
One of the best known members of the large Danish colony in Audubon county, Christoffer Hansen, came to this country at the age of nineteen and by diligence and faithful attention to the duties at hand, has established himself in a very comfortable home in this county and is held as among the most substantial men in this section of the county.
Christoffer Hansen was born in Sjealand, Denmark, April 20, 1872, the son of Peter and Dorothea (Christophersen) Hansen, both of whom were natives of the same district, landowners and farmers, and parents of six children, four of whom are still living, Mrs. Marie (Nelson) Petersen, Christoffer, Hand L. and Lars, Hand L. and Christopher being the only member of the family to come tho this country. Until he was fourteen years of age, Christoffer Hansen attended the schools of his native district, after which he engaged in farm work in the neighborhood of his farm until March of the year 1891, at which time he came to the United States, landing at New York and proceeding directly to Oakfield, Iowa, where his uncle, Jens P. Christoffersen, made his home. He remained there for about six years, working on farms, and then, in 1896, bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres near Poplar, in Shelby county. After a year's residence there he sold his farm and bought eighty acres in section 8 of Hamlin township, this county, where he lived for four years, at the end of which time he sold that place and bought one hundred and twenty acres in section 9 of Greeley township, where he since has made his home. To this farm he has added, since he bought it, forty acres more in section 9 and forty acres in section 10, making, in all, a fine farm which he has brought to a high state of cultivation.
On December 7, 1903, in the city of Audubon, Christoffer Hansen was united in marriage with Mrs. Tena (Nelson) Christiansen, who was born in Jylland, Denmark, November 1, 1873, the only daughter of Jasper C. and Anna C. (Thomsen) Nelson, whose father died when she was quite small and her mother, marrying a second time, came to America in 1889. By her first marriage, Mrs. Hansen had two children, John T., born August 13, 1894, and Matilda C., born July 26, 1896.
To Christoffer and Tena (Nelson) Hansen have been born five children, Peter C., born on September 30, 1904: Dorothea C., born on May 1, 1906: Louie J., born on June 17, 1908: Oscar F., born on September 27, 1911, and Walter M., born on August 26, 1913, a lively set of youngsters who make merry the happy home of the Hansens.
Mr. and Mrs. Hansen are members of the Danish Lutheran church, in the various beneficences of which they are actively interested and are regarded as among the leaders in the community in which they live. Mr. Hansen is a Democrat and gives such attention to political affairs as a good citizen owes to his commonwealth. He is public-spirited and enterprising, a good farmer and neighbor and he and his good wife are held in the highest regard by all who know them.
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Transcribed by Gunter Schanzenbacher, Waynesboro, PA, March 20, 2013 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. 440-441.
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