CHRIS P. LAURITSEN.
Chris P. Lauritsen, who owns a splendid farm of two hundred acres in Sharon township, Audubon county, Iowa, was born on the Island of Aeroe, Denmark, May 23, 1847, and is the son of Peter H. and Ellen Marie (Simonsen) Lauritsen, both natives of Denmark. Peter Lauritsen was a farmer and was engaged in that occupation all of his life. He died in his native land after having reared a family of eleven children. Chris P. is the youngest of these children; one brother is still living in Denmark.
Chris Lauritsen received his education in his native land, and after leaving school worked as a farm hand and in a brick yard. He also served in the Danish army and when he was thirty-four years old, came to America, locating in Shelby county, Iowa. There he purchased eighty acres of land and engaged in general farming for two years. Subsequently, he moved to Audubon county and purchased the farm upon which he is now living. Mr. Lauritsen bought only forty acres at first and for this paid eighteen dollars an acre. He improved the land by careful cultivation and by the erection of substantial buildings and fences, and added to the original tract until he now owns two hundred acres of land. Altogether he has invested probably more than ten thousand dollars in improvements. He raises seventy-five acres of corn, forty acres of alfalfa and small grains. Mr. Lauritsen had fifteen hundred dollars when he came to America.
Chris P. Lauritsen was married, in 1882, to Anna Marie Hansen, the daughter of Rasmus and Christina Hansen. Two children, Peter H. and Ellen Marie, have been born to this marriage. Ellen Marie married Claus J. Larsen and has four children, Chester, Edna, Edward and Lillian. Mrs. Lauritsen was born on the Island of Aeroe, Denmark, and her parents also were natives of that island.
Mr. Lauritsen is a Republican. He and his family are members of the Danish Lutheran church, of which he has been trustee. Mr. and Mrs. Lauritsen deserve great credit for their careful management and frugal, economical living by which they have been able to save a substantial competence for their declining years. They are highly-respected citizens of this locality where they are so well known. Mr. Lauritsen has lived a useful career, and having reared a family to useful and honorable lives may enjoy the satisfaction during the remainder of his life of knowing that his days here have been well spent.
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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. 858-859.
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