IVER P. HANSEN.
There is no calling however humble, in which enterprise and industry, coupled with well-directed purpose, will not produce some measure of success. In the pursuit of farming, the qualities mentioned are quite essential. Among the well-known and highly-respected farmers of Audubon county, who are now living retired, having acquired a substantial competence for their declining years, and who, while they have done this, have at the same time greatly benefited the community in which they live, is Iver P. Hansen, who lives at Audubon, Iowa. Mr. Hansen, who is well known throughout Audubon county, is a native of Denmark, which has given to this country so many of her best citizens and it is eminently fitting that a brief account of his life and works be included in this volume.
Iver P. Hansen, a retired farmer of Audubon, Iowa, was born on April 28, 1845, in Denmark. He is the son of Hans Christian Peterson and Bodel (Frederickson) Peterson, the former of whom died in 1850 and the latter in 1874. Hans C. Stevenson was a cabinetmaker by trade. He and his wife were the parents of four children: Iver P., the subject of this sketch; Elsie, who is now deceased, who was born in Denmark but later came to America; Nelsena, the wife of Jens Anderson, of Wisconsin. Iver P. Hansen's mother was married three times and was the mother of eight children.
Iver P. Hansen was married in Denmark to Christina Marie Peterson, May 29, 1869, and in 1870 they came to America. After arriving in this country, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen came to Chicago, where he worked in the fall of 1870 and then went to Wisconsin and worked in the timber, cutting cord wood for fiftenn years. He also farmed one hundred and sixty acres which he owned in the wilderness; this farm was located in Dore county. Mr. Hansen cleared one hundred acres of his timbered tract. He made a trip to Audubon county in 1884 and purchased one hundred and twenty acres, which were partly improved, in Leroy township, west of Audubon. Mr. Hansen paid twenty-seven and one-half dollars for it. Subsequently, he returned to Wisconsin and sold out his holdings in that state. He brought his family to Audubon in 1885. Mr. Hansen added eighty acres in 1892 which he purchased at thirty-five dollars an acre, and now owns two hundred acres. In 1906 he sold his farm at niney-seven and one-half dollars an acre, which was the first farm sold at that price. In 1910 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Cameron township for sixteen thousand dollars and in March, 1907, he moved to Audubon. Later he built a splendid new modern house in south Audubon. This house consists of nine rooms and cost thirty-two hundred dollars.
To Mr. and Mrs. Iver P. Hansen, six children have been born, Hans C., who is a farmer in Adams county, Iowa; Peter L., who is a merchant in Washington; Clara M., who is the wife of Postmaster R. C. Spencer; Augusta L., who married William Geombel, of Adams county, Iowa, and Frank Edward, who lives on a farm in Cameron township, and has one child, Frances Marie. Hans C. Hansen has two children, Iver Peter and Mary Louisa, and Mrs. Clara M. Spencer also has two children, Arnold Hans and Lillian Esther.
Mrs. Iver P. Hansen was born on May 15, 1848, in Denmark and was the daughter of Peter Laurersen and Marie (Jensen) Peterson, who lived and died in Denmark, where they were farmers.
Iver P. Hansen is a Democrat in politics. For many years he was a school director and road supervisor in his native township. In 1898 Mr. Hansen was a candidate for representative but was defeated. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen and family are identified with the Presbyterian church.
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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. 519-521.
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