Thomas Hanson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 422 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				THOMAS HANSON.  

	Thomas Hanson, deceased, was one of the prominent and influential 
farmers of Burk township, Minnehaha county. He was born in Bergen, 
Norway, on the 17th of October, 1851, and emigrated to the United 
States in 1869, locating in Iowa, where he remained until 1874 and then 
came to South Dakota. He took up a homestead on section 13, Burk 
township, Minnehaha county, and also secured the northwest quarter of 
section 24 under the tree culture laws. He was one of the pioneers of 
the state and underwent all the hardships and trials which fell to the 
lot of the early settlers, suffering heavy losses because of the 
grasshopper plague and in the years of drought.  

	Mr. Hanson held various township offices and enjoyed an enviable 
reputation as a representative agriculturist and respected citizen of 
his community. His demise occurred on the 18th of February, 1913, and 
his remains were interred in the Willow Creek cemetery. He had been a 
resident here for almost four decades and in his passing the state lost 
one of its honored pioneer settlers. His widow, Mrs. Lena Hanson, who 
still survives him, is fifty-five years of age.