IVER NELSEN.
A resident of the United States since he was twenty-eight years old, or since 1880, Iver Nelsen, a general farmer and stock raiser of Douglas township, this county, has saved a part of his earnings from year to year until he now owns one hundred and sixty acres of fine land in Douglas township. Born in Denmark on December 10, 1852, Mr. Nelsen is the son of Nels Petersen and Cecile Jensen, both natives of Denmark, where the former owned a small farm. They were the parents of three children, Mary Christiana, Christiana Maria and Iver. Both of the daughters are now deceased and Mr. Nelsen is the only member of the family living.
Iver Nelsen received his education in the Danish public schools, but was compelled to quit school at the age of fourteen after which he worked on the farm until twenty-eight years old, when he came to this country. After landing at New York City, he came west to Wisconsin, where he stopped for five or six weeks, after which he came to Iowa. He worked on a farm for two years and then rented a farm near Elkhorn, where he lived for eleven years. In 1894 he came to Audubon county and rented land in Douglas township, where he lived for four years. Having, in the meantime, saved a considerable amount of money from his earnings, he purchased eighty acres of land for twenty-eight dollars and fifty cents an acre. After owning this land for four years, he sold it for forty-five dollars an acre and bought one hundred and twenty acres in sections 16 and 17, for which he paid fifty-five dollars an acre. In 1910 Mr. Nelsen purchased an additional forty acres, for which he paid ninety dollars. These various prices indicate the rise in value of farm land in this section of the state. In addition to Mr. Nelsen's original investment in his land, he has also invested five thousand dollars in improvements of various kinds. He feeds all of his grain to cattle and hogs, and sells a carload of cattle each year and a large number of hogs.
In 1883 Iver Nelson was married to Christiana Cramer, who was born in Denmark, the daughter of Chris Cramer, and to this union four children have been born, Chris, Christiana, William and Nels. Chris married Cecilia Hansen and lives at Ringstead, Iowa. Christiana married Jens C. Sloth and lives in Viola township, this county. William and Nels are unmarried and live at home.
The Nelsen family all belong to the Danish Lutheran church and are influential in the local congregation of that church. Mr. Nelsen is a good citizen of this great state, loyal to its institutions and enthusiastic on account of the opportunities offered to young men of other lands who have come to our shores and who have prospered here. He is well informed, intelligent, cordial in all of the relations of life, and is very popular with all the people of Douglas township, among whom he is well known, he and his family being held in the highest esteem.
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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. 597-598.
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