MARTIN P. MARDESEN.
The United States is the most cosmopolitan nation of the earth. Her citizens are drawn from every country and every clime and a residence of a few years in this country so imbues her adopted citizens with the American spirit that they become Americans indeed. No nation has furnished better or more substantial citizens for this country than the little kingdom of Denmark. From this splendid country have come thousands who have won honored places in the communities in which they settled. Among the many families who have come to this country from Denmark and settled in the state of Iowa there is none more loyal to their adopted country than the Mardesen family of Hamlin township, this county. Martin P. Mardesen, the present head of this family in Hamlin township, is one of the best-known farmers and business men in Audubon county.
Martin P. Mardesen was born on January 31, 1846, in Schleswig, near Apenrada, Denmark, the son of Soren and Anna Mardesen, who were also born in Schleswig, the former near Apenrada, and the latter farther north. Soren Mardesen was a farmer and his father, Martin Mardesen, was a blacksmith. Soren Mardesen and wife were the parents of two children, Martin P. Mardesen having a sister, Anna Marguerite, two years younger than himself.
Martin P. Mardesen received a good common-school education, attending the school in the winter and working out in the summer. He came to America when twenty-one years old, landing at Quebec, Canada. He did not stop there long but came west to Davenport, Iowa, near which city he obtained work by the month on a farm. He stayed there four years and in 1871 moved to Cass county, Iowa, locating at Atlantic, at the same time purchasing forty acres of land in the southern part of Audubon county. As soon as he got a house built on this farm, he moved there. This was several years before the Atlantic-Audubon branch of the Rock Island railroad was built and Oakfield was the postoffice at that time. Atlantic was the nearest large town. Mr. Mardesen owned this forty acres for only three years, at the end of which time he sold it and purchased two hundred and seventy-six acres of land near Elkhorn, on which he lived for twenty-eight years and then sold it, purchasing, in 1901, three hundred and thirteen acres in section 27, of Hamlin township, this county. Mr. Mardesen moved to this farm in 1902, and has since made his home there.
In 1869 Martin P. Mardesen was married to Nancy J. McDowell, who was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of John and Mary McDowell, of Scotch-Irish descent of very old families in the United States. To this union have been born seven children, Anna, John S., Thomas, Mary, Edward, Frank and Amanda. Anna married Mike Larsen and has six children, Martin, Mary, Charles, William, Henry and Helen. John S. married Sena Nelsen, of Danish parentage, but born in this country, and they have four children, Alfred, Esther, Arnold and Leona. Thomas married Grace Wells and has five children, George, Thelma, Eloween, Maxine and Harvey. Mary married Rasmus Nissen, of Elkhorn, and has eight children, Clarence, Florence, Rena, Frankie, Harvey, Melvin, Annabelle and Mildred. Edward married Sena Esbeck and has four children, Merlin, Leo, Vernon and Evelyn. Frank married Anna Petersen and has six children, Edna Alice, Imo, Esther, Erma, Lillian and Milo. Amanda married Chris Larsen, a druggist at Elkhorn, and has five children, Herman, Merlin, Emert, Sidney and Curtis. The mother of these children died on November 16, 1901, and on April 12, 1904, Mr. Mardesen married, secondly, Mrs. Anna (Jensen) Steffensen, widow of Doctor Steffensen, of Elkhorn, who died on January 27, 1913.
Mr. Mardesen is a stockholder and was one of the organizers of the First National Bank at Exira, of which he was a director for three years. He also is a stockholder in the Elkhorn-Kimballton Lumber Company at Elkhorn and in the Elkhorn-Marne Telephone Company. He owns property in Exira and spends a great deal of his time there. Mr. Mardesen is identified with the Republican party and has served as school director and township trustee, besides filling other minor offices with credit to himself and satisfaction to the community. Mr. Mardesen and his family are members of the Danish Lutheran church, and are held in high regard throughout the community in which they are so well known.
|
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. 539-541.
|
|
