CHRIST J. KNUDSEN.
Christ J. Knudsen, a well-known farmer and stock raiser of Douglas township, Audubon county, Iowa, and the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of fine farming land which is highly improved, was born on June 4, 1871, in Denmark. He is the son of Jens J. and Alice (Nelson) Knudsen. Jens and Alice Knudsen were both born in Denmark and were also married in their native land. He owned a small farm and was engaged in farming there until 1898, when he came to the United States. He lived with his son in Iowa for two years and then returned to Denmark, where, after living for a short time, he returned to the country and lived with his son, Christ J., until his death, in 1913. He was the father of four children: Nels J., Jens, Soren and Christ J. Soren lives in Denmark, Nels J. lives with Christ J. and Jens lives in Clarinda.
Christ J. Knudsen was educated in the schools of Denmark but quit school at the age of fourteen and worked on the farm for three years, coming to America at the age of eighteen. The voyage was made on one of the ships of the Hamburg line. Mr. Kundsen landed in New York and came direct to Iowa, where he worked on a farm near Walnut for two years. He then rented a farm north of Walnut, comprising one hundred and twenty acres and lived there for one year, after which he rented land for three years. After this he went to Harlan, Iowa, and rented a farm there for two years. He also rented a farm near Erling for two years, coming finally to Audubon county, where he settled in Douglas township and purchased eighty acres of land. Keeping this tract for two years, he traded it for two hundred and forty acres in section 27, of Douglas township. Five years afterwards he purchased eighty acres more.
Mr. Knudsen was married on February 26, 1896, to Laura Sorensen, the daughter of Jens Jensen, a native of Denmark, who was married in Jacksonville, Shelby county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Knudsen have had six children: Edward, Houger, Soren, Alfred, Martin and Dagny. Soren is deceased, having died in 1909, at the age of seven years. The remainder of the family are at home and two of the children are attending school.
Mr. Knudsen's principal crops are corn and small grains. His corn averages about fifty bushels to the acre, his oats about thirty-five and his wheat about twenty-four bushels. Every acre of his three hundred and twenty acres has been under cultivation. Mr. Knudsen feeds all the grain he raises to his stock and sells two or three carloads of cattle each year and about one hundred and thirty head of hogs. He takes great pride in a purebred Percheron horse which he owns. Altogether it is fair to say that ten thousand dollars have been invested in improvements upon the farm.
A Republican in politics, Christ J. Knudsen has served as township trustee for five years and as assessor for three years. The Knudsen family belongs to the Danish Lutheran church and Mr. Knudsen is a trustee of this church.
Mr. Knudsen deserves to rank as one of the enterprising and successful farmers of Douglas township. Few men are better known or more highly respected than he. Scarcely in the prime of life, he has attained a success in agriculture which comes to few men of his age. He is, nevertheless, a man of modest and unassuming manners, wholly unafifected by his success, cordial with his neighbors and friendly in all of the relations of life.
|
Transcribed 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. 613-614.
|
|
