One of the best-known Danish families living in Audubon county, Iowa, is that of the Jorgensens. The family is especially well-known in this county, because of the prominence which the various members have attained, and on account of their success in farming and the interest which the various members have taken in the public affairs of the county. By skillful and careful management of their personal affairs, they have been able to outstrip many of the less active and less able citizens who have come to this county from Denmark and from other lands. Albert H. Jorgensen, a farmer of Sharon township, is one of the best known representatives of the Jorgensen family in this county.

Mr. Jorgensen, who among other things owns three hundred and sixty acres of land in Sharon township, was born on August 5, 1866, in Denmark. His parents, Chris L. and Anna (Albertson) Jorgensen, were both natives of Denmark. Chris L. Jorgensen was a sailor by occupation, and followed this practically all his life, not only in his native land, but in this country. In 1872 he came to America and after locating in Chicago, Illinois, sailed on Lake Michigan for three years. Seized with a desire to visit his home people, he returned to Denmark to his family and lived in his native land the remainder of his life. Early in life he had served in the Danish-German War of 1848. He died in July, 1913, ripe in years, honored and respected by the host of people who had known him in his active life. He was the father of six children, five of whom are now living, Johannah being deceased. The others are, George L., Carrie, Albert H., Sophia and Anna.

Albert H. Jorgensen received a good education in the Danish schools before coming to this country. He was only sixteen years old when he arrived in America in 1882, and immediately after coming here located in Audubon county, where he worked as a farm hand for four years. In the meantime, he had saved considerable money from his earnings, and was able to buy forty acres of land, for which he paid fourteen dollars an acre. This small tract of land was located in Sharon township, and it is the same farm upon which Mr. Jorgensen now lives. He has been engaged in general farming all his life, and as he has prospered he has been able to add to his farming holdings from time to time. Usually he raises a hundred and fifty acres of corn, which yields an average of not less than fifty bushels to the acre; he also raises about seventy-five acres of small grain and forty acres of hay every year. Mr. Jorgensen is an enthusiastic believer in the virtues of alfalfa as a forage crop, and has twenty acres sown to that crop. Practically all of his grain and his hay, especially the alfalfa, he feeds to hogs and cattle. However, he is not able to raise enough grain, and generally buys three to five thousand bushels of corn every year in addition to what he raises. He feeds about two hundred head of hogs and seventy-five head of cattle, and only raises thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle, and Duroc-Jersey hogs. The Jorgensen farm, upon which there has been invested more than fifteen thousand dollars in improvements, is believed to be the best in Sharon township; it is equipped with two silos, which have a tonnage of three hundred tons. Mr. Jorgensen was one of the promoters and served as vice-president for three years of the Atlantic & Northern Railway Company.

On November 2, 1888, six years after coming to America, Albert H. Jorgensen was married to Maren K. Clausen, daughter of Claus C. and Christena (Madsen) Clausen, both natives of Denmark, where the former was a blacksmith and where he followed his occupation all his life; he is still living in his native land, but is now retired. He served in the Danish-Prussian War of 1864, and has lived to rear a family of nine children, eight of whom are still living, two being in Audubon county, Christian F. Clausen and Mrs. Jorgensen.

Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Jorgensen have been the parents of a large family of children. Of the ten children only one, Anna, the eighth-born, is married. She married Albert Jensen, and they have one child, Herluf. The other children are, Chris L., Clarence, Albert, Marcius, Mads, Jens, Nels, Anna, Christina and Bertha.

Albert H. Jorgensen is prominent in the affairs of the Danish Lutheran church, of which he was treasurer for a number of years, and also was trustee. Politically, he is an independent Republican.

Among the other enterprises in which Mr. Jorgensen is interested, has been his connection with the well-known stock breeders of Audubon, and Mr. Jorgensen himself makes a specialty of Belgian and Clyde horses, and his profit in this industry has been no inconsiderable factor in his success. Albert H. Jorgensen well deserves the high standard which he enjoys among the people of Audubon county. He has gone on from year to year, looking carefully after the details of his business, yet he has never neglected the larger interests of the public, and is regarded as a man of charitable habits and kindly disposition. It must be said in justice to the history of this section, that no man has had a larger part in its commercial and agricultural development than Albert H. Jorgensen.