Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Ebsen, Chris  April 28, 1850 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 11, 2011, 9:26 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 628 - 631
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     CHRIS EBSEN is one of the venerable citizens of Clatsop county, where he 
has resided for the past four decades and has won a substantial measure of 
success as a dairyman. He was born in Denmark, April 28, 1850, his parents 
being Nickoli and Mary Ebsen, who spent their entire lives in that country. 
The father was a farmer by occupation. The mother died when her son Chris was 
but two and one-half years old.

     When he had reached the age of fourteen Chris Ebsen was confirmed in a 
Lutheran church of Germany, in which country he lived as a boy. He returned to 
Denmark in 1870 and thereafter followed the sea for six years, being on 
vessels which touched the shores of China, Mexico, Australia and South America 
and in fact sailed all over the world. Landing in San Francisco, California, 
on the sailing ship Theodore Kerner, a German vessel, he was there paid off 
and then shipped on coastwise vessels. He followed the life of a sailor on the 
Pacific coast until about 1885, when he took up a homestead claim on Camas 
prairie in Klickitat county, Washington. Mr. Ebsen cleared away part of the 
timber which covered the place and disposed of the property in 1889 to come to 
Astoria, Oregon. After working in salmon canneries for a time he purchased a 
tract of eighty acres on the Lewis and Clark river, seven miles south of 
Astoria, which was a part of the old Moses Rogers donation land claim. He 
cleared off most of the alder brush and stumps which covered it and began 
improving and farming the property. This he has cultivated continuously to the 
present time and has erected substantial and commodious buildings thereon, 
including a modern barn which he built in 1917. He began raising pure bred 
Jersey cattle in 1903 and keeps about twenty-two head of pure bred Jersey cows 
and a pure bred registered bull. His principal crops are hay and oats for 
silage. Despite his advanced years, he is still active in the operation of the 
farm and personally tends a fine garden.

     In 1885 Mr. Ebsen was united in marriage to Jorgine Johansen, a native of 
Denmark, who emigrated to the United States in 1883. They reared a family of 
five children, as follows: Elizabeth, born in Astoria, who is the wife of Carl 
Hansen, a native of Denmark, now engaged in the logging business in Clatsop 
county; Chris, who died in 1918; Sophie, now the wife of Louis Johansen, of 
Columbia Beach, Oregon; and Harry and Peter N., both at home. The two last 
named, together with their brother-in-law, Carl Hansen, operate extensively in 
the logging business in Clatsop county, owning two large donkey engines. Mrs. 
Jorgine (Johansen) Ebsen passed away on the 2d of May, 1923.

     Mr. Ebsen filled the office of justice of the peace most acceptably for 
several years and also served on the school board for many years. He is a 
member of the Danish Brotherhood of America, vice president of the Federal 
Farm Loan Association and a member of the Lower Columbia Dairy Association, 
which he assisted in organizing and in which he holds stock. When in 
reminiscent mood he talks most interestingly of his experiences as a pioneer 
in this part of the country. As there were no roads or bridges he was obliged 
to go by boat to Astoria to market his produce and purchase supplies. Now 
there is a fine concrete bridge across Young's bay and the distance to Astoria 
can be covered by an automobile in fifteen minutes. With the assistance of his 
daughter, Mrs. Hansen, who is a great lover of flowers, Mr. Ebsen keeps his 
garden in a riot of bloom all summer, and large shade trees protect the house 
in winter storms. Mrs. Hansen is very active in the work of the Grange and is 
a member of Sacajawea and The Danish Women's Sewing Club, of which she has 
filled the position of vice president and is one of the Graces in the Grange, 
of which Mr. Hansen is gate keeper.

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