REV. HERMAN L. JENSEN.
The Rev. Herman L. Jensen, pastor of the Bethany Danish Evangelical church of Sharon township, Audubon county, Iowa, has been a citizen of this county some fifteen years, having come to America after being educated in the schools of his native land, and after working at the blacksmith trade for a period of nine years. He also served fourteen months in the Danish army before leaving his native country.
Born in Denmark, March 14, 1876, the son of Jens and Anna (Emmicksen) Jensen, both natives of Denmark, Rev. Herman L. Jensen has had an interesting career. His father was a laborer all his life and died in his native land, January 24, 1906; his mother is still living in Denmark. Of the fourteen children born to Jens and Anna Jensen, seven are now living, as follows: Mrs. Minnie Swanson, William F., Thorwald, Peter, Anna, Kristine, and the Rev. Herman L.
Herman L. Jensen, after coming to America, located in Lyon county, Iowa, where he worked on a farm for one year, and then as a blackmith for two years. About 1903 he entered Dana College at Blair, Nebraska, and after completing the course of instruction there, and at Trinity Seminary, was ordained at Elkhorn, Iowa, June 6, 1909, as a minister in the Danish Evangelical church. Coming to the Bethany church immediately after his ordination, he has remained here since that time. In the meantime he has started a mission in Guthrie county, Iowa, which was begun three years ago with three families, and which now includes a congregation of twenty-two families. The congregation is in a thriving condition and contemplates the erection of a large church.
Rev. H. L. Jensen was married on June 16, 1909, to Marie Juhl, the daughter of Peter and Anna Juhl, and to this union have been born two children, Victor Julius and Anna Elvera.
There is no calling and no vocation in which the opportunity for service is greater than that of the ministry, and the Rev. Herman L. Jensen has improved upon his opportunities, and with sincerity of purpose and the zeal of the devout Christian, has carried forward his work in this part of Iowa with consummate success. Although devoted primarily to spiritual matters, Mr. Jensen is a good citizen in the largest sense of the word and has always taken a keen interest in public affairs, but in political matters, he is an independent voter. He is popular with his congregation of the Bethany church and well equipped to become in time one of the foremost ministers of the state in his denominations.
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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. 822-823.
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