HANS P. HANSEN, SR.
Among the many well-known farmers of Audubon county, Iowa, is Hans P. Hansen, Sr., who is now living retired in Kimballton. He and his wife started in life a small way, and have by good management and unceasing industry achieved a large measure of success as farmers in this county. Few men are better known in Audubon county than Hans P. Hansen, and few have a greater number of warm friends than he. In 1912 he retired from the farm, removing to Kimballton, Iowa, where he purchased a fine home. He has always been a good farmer, and stock raiser, and a short time ago added fourteen acres to his farm in Sharon township, located five miles east of Kimballton.
Hans P. Hansen, Sr., was born on November 15, 1854, on the island of Fyen, Denmark, the son of Hans George and Mary Hansen, who were also natives of that island. The former was a farmer all his life, and died in his native land at the age of seventy-two years. His wife died at the age of forty-eight. They were members of the Danish Lutheran church, and lived to rear a family of three children, of whom Trena, the second born, is deceased; Hans P., the subject of this sketch, is the eldest of the family; Sorensen lives on the old home place in Denmark.
Educated in the schools of his native land, Hans P. Hansen, Sr., started out to make a living for himself at the age of fifteen. Taking up the vocation of farming he purchased a small tract of land and farmed in his native country, until 1886, when he came to America. He had been married in Denmark to Mary Hansen, who was born in that country, the daughter of Hans Jepsen and Carrie Marie Hansen. Mrs. Hansen's father was a farmer, and spent all his life in his native land.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hans P. Hansen, Sr., have been born six children, namely: Carrie is the wife of Edward Jensen, of Sharon township, Audubon county; Hans George, who is engaged in the lumber business at Aurora, Nebraska, married Mary Hemmington; Lawrence is a real estate dealer at Exira, Iows, and married Cina Gerloff; Nels was the fourth born; Axil is a farmer in Sharon township, and married Anton Augaard; Carl is a farmer in Sharon township, and married Kirsten Sorensen.
In 1886, after coming to America, Hans P. Hansen, Sr., located in Sharon township, where he was engaged in farming for four years for three different men, John Petersen, Martin Petersen and Lars Esbeck. About 1890 he purchased forty acres of land near Exira, and one year later sold the farm and rented a farm for five years in Hamlin township. He rented land in Oakfield township for three years and then purchased one hundred and twenty acres five miles east of Kimballton, to which he has lately added fourteen acres. Here he lived from 1900 to 1912, when he retired and removed to Kimballton.
Mr. Hansen has never aspired to any office, and is independent in politics, voting for measures and men of superior merit rather than for political parties and party emblems. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen are members of the Danish Lutheran church at Kimballton and take an active interest in the affairs of his congregation.
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Transcribed by Gunter Schanzenbacher, Waynesboro, PA, March 27, 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. 860-861.
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