Brown County MN Archives Biographies.....Ouren, Alfred B. 1884 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 27, 2014, 12:46 pm

Source: See Below
Author: L. A. Fritsche

ALFRED B. OUREN.

    Although a young man, Alfred B. Ouren, of the Security State Bank of Hanska,
Brown county, is widely recognized as one of the most influential men in
financial and business circles in that locality. He was born on June 10, 1884,
in Linden township, Brown county, Minnesota, and is a son of Bernt and Kari
Ouren, both natives of Norway, coming from the provinces of Toten and
Gudevandsdalen, respectively. They came to the United States when children and
were married in Minnesota, in the year 1877, and here established their home. It
was immediately following the Indian wars that the father came to this country.
His father, Ole F. Ouren, homesteaded a tract of about one hundred and twenty
acres on the present town site of Hanska, the south boundary of his land being
the present main street, running east and west. There Bernt Ouren worked to
assist in developing the new home, remaining with his parents several years,
then bought two hundred acres of land in Linden township, for which he paid not
more than ten dollars an acre; to this tract he later added forty acres, all of
which lies in section 18. He made extensive improvements on this farm, bringing
it up to a high state of cultivation. He erected good buildings, planted a large
grove, etc. It was here that Alfred B. was born in a plain, small board shack,
which is now used as a granary. He was the first of the children born on this farm.

    As a boy, Alfred B. Ouren worked on the home farm during the summer months,
and attended the district schools in the winter time until he was sixteen years
of age; then went to Minneapolis where he attended the State University,
graduating from the agricultural department of that institution in 1904. Thus
exceptionally well equipped for a career as husbandman, he returned to the farm,
working with his father for two years, when he decided that the business world
held greater attractions for him, and he accordingly abandoned the farm, came to
Hanska, where he secured employment as a clerk in a store, also was assistant
postoffice clerk. Later he engaged in the hardware and implement business for a
short time. In 1907 he was elected secretary and manager of the Hanska Rural
Telephone Company, which office he held until 1909, in which year he went to
Courtland, where he became cashier of the Court-land State Bank, which position
he held until February 9, 1913, when he came to Hanska again, this time as
cashier of the Security State Bank, with which he is still connected.

     Politically, Mr. Ouren is a Democrat and is active in party affairs. At
this writing he is mayor of the town of Hanska, also treasurer of the local
school hoard, and is doing much for the general welfare of the place. He is a
supporter of the Unitarian church, in which he was reared, his parents having
belonged to that denomination. He is a member and president of the Hanska band,
which is the best band in the county, with the possible exception of the Second
Regiment band of New Ulm. He enjoys the reputation of being one of the most
conservative bankers in Brown county, and under his able management the Security
State Bank is rapidly growing in prestige and business, ranking with the best in
Brown county.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY MINNESOTA
ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS

L. A. FRITSCHE. M. D.
Editor

With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Old Families

VOLUME II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana


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