HANS J. HANSEN.
The best history of a community or state is that which deals most largely with the lives and activities of the people; especially of those who by their own endeavors and by the exercise of indomitable energy have forged to the front and placed themselves in a position where they deserve to be called progressive citizens. In this brief review will be found the record of Hans J. Hansen, a man who has outstripped those less active on the highway of life and who has achieved a career of marked success in farming, his name being one which his neighbors delight to honor on account of his upright life and habits of thrift and industry.
Hans J. Hansen was born in Denmark on April 23, 1858, son of Andrew and Gesten (Hansen) Hansen, natives of the same country and the parents of four children, of whom Hans J. is the eldest. Andrew Hansen was a wheel-maker by trade. Hans J. Hansed worked on the farm of his boyhood days and when twenty-four years of age came to the United States, landing in New York city; shortly afterward coming to Audubon county, where he has lived ever since. For three years after his arrival here he worked by the month and then purchased forty acres of land and rented some additional land. He gradually has added to his holdings until he now owns two hundred and eighty acres of as good land as there is in Audubon county. Mr. Hansen's first home was in Sharon township, but in 1907 he bought land adjoining the town of Hamlin and built a large eleven-room house. His barn is also a fine building and there are cribs, granaries, hog houses and other out-buildings, all erected according to the latest approved plans.
On March 6, 1885, Hans J. Hansen was married to Mary Christina Rasmussen, of Sharon township, who was born in Denmark and came to the United States in 1883, and to this union four children have been born, Christina, Mary, Andrew and Alfred, all of whom are living at home save Christina, who married Chris Mulbur, and who has three children, Olivia, Emmet and Hilma.
Mr. and Mrs. Hansen attend and support the Danish Lutheran church. Mr. Hansen is a Democrat, but has never held office, devoting almost all his time to the work on his farm, which shows convincing evidences of his careful attention and management. Mr. Hansen helped organize the Farmers and Savings Bank of Hamlin and is vice-president of the bank. He also owns an interest in the lumber yard at Hamlin and is otherwise prominent in the business life of the community in which he lives.
When it is remembered that Hans J. Hansen came to America with no money and with few friends in this country and that he has within a comparatively short time amassed a comfortable fortune, too much credit cannot be given to him for his industry, frugality and good management. He is a good citizen of his adopted country and is admired and respected by all his neighbors and friends, he and his family being held in the highest regard throughout that whole section.
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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. 546-547.
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