SOREN C. PEDERSEN.
Of the well-known bankers and prominent business men of Audubon county, Iowa, Soren C. Pedersen, the president of the Kimballton-Danish Savings Bank, of Kimballton, Iowa, must not be overlooked. Mr. Pedersen has been one of the influential factors in the commercial and financial development of this part of Audubon county, and associated with him in the active management of the bank, is his brother, Math Nissager, and his son, Alfred M., the former of whom is cashier and the latter is assistant cashier. John Pedersen is vice-president of the bank, which has a capital of twenty thousand dollars. Since the organization of the bank in 1907, it has enjoyed a wonderful growth and now has a substantial patronage, not only from the business men of Kimballton and community, but from many different parts of Audubon county.
Soren C. Pedersen, the president of this institution, was born in November, 1868, at Mariager, Denmark, and came to America in 1892, locating at Ruskin, Nebraska, where he farmed for about seven years. In 1899 he located at Elk Horn, where he engaged in the hardware and implement business. Previously, in 1892 he had organized and started the Elk Horn Bank, of which he is the cashier and John Pedersen is the president. Since 1907 Mr. Pedersen has divided his time between the bank at Elk Horn and the bank at Kimballton, and he is also treasurer of the Elk Horn & Kimballton Lumber Company and of the Marne and Elk Horn Telephone Company. As president of the Atlantic Northern Railroad Company, he has had much to do with the development of this section. He is interested in the Danish Lutheran College at Elk Horn, and a director in the Dana College at Blair, Nebraska.
Mr. Pedersen's wife, who bore him four children, died on March 26, 1914, at the age of thirty-eight. She was a good woman of broad and intelligent sympathies and one who had been of great assistance to her husband in his battle for success. Of their children, Alfred M., born December 8, 1894, at Elk Horn, Iowa, was educated at Elk Horn and at Dana College at Blair, Nebraska; he is now assistant cashier of the Kimballton-Danish Savings Bank, which position he has occupied since October, 1914; Edith A., Ejnar and Sigurd, the other three children, are all at home.
Mr. Pedersen's brother, Math Nissager, is somewhat older than Soren C., having been born on November 30, 1861, at Mariager, Denmark. The parents of these two well-known business men of Audubon county were Math and Anna (Peterson) Moller, who were natives of Denmark. The father was a carpenter and farmer and came to America in 1892, settling first at Ruskin, Nebraska, where he was a farmer for thirteen years. He then located at Elkhorn, Iowa, and later returned to his native land, remaining for thirteen years. Not long after his return to this country, he passed away quietly at Elkhorn in June, 1911. His wife, the mother of Math and Soren C., is still living. They had one other child, the second born, Mrs. Mary Miller, who is the wife of Jerry Miller, of Elk Horn.
Math Nissager was married November 23, 1891, to Anna Jensen, of Skive, Denmark. They have had two children: Esther Anna, of Des Moines; and Freda D., of Ames, Iowa.
Ever since coming to America, Soren C. Pedersen and Math Nissager have been associated together in business. That they have prospered exceedingly in their adopted country goes without saying. In a way it seems that everything to which they have turned their hands has resulted favorably and today they are among the best known business men of Audubon county.
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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. 410-411.
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