BIOGRAPHIES:  Hans HANSON, Elk Mound, Dunn County, WI

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Hans Hanson, a retired farmer of Section 24, town of Elk Mound, may well be 
ranked among the builders of Dunn County having been an active factor in its 
agricultural progress.  He was born in Lullen, Denmark, Oct. 16, 1852, son 
of Hans and Anna Marie Hanson.  The father was killed in the woods in 1852, 
before the subject of this sketch was born.  The latter when he grew up had 
to serve for a while in the Danish army and learn the duties of a soldier, 
but in 1878 at the age of 26 he came to the United States and to Dunn County, 
Wisconsin, locating in the town of Elk Mound, where for seven years he worked 
on farms during the summers and at logging in the winters.  His mother, who 
followed him to this country in 1880, died in 1886.  At the end of the seven-
year period mentioned Hans Hanson went to Eau Claire, where he found work in 
a mill.  It was in 1888 that he began farming for himself in the town of Elk 
Mound, on 80 acres in Section 24.  The greater part of the tract had been 
broken, but there were no buildings except a small frame shack, which was not 
plastered or finished.  This Mr. Hanson plastered and put into shape to serve 
as a residence, and, having been married July 12, that year, to Katrina Faber, 
he and his wife took possession of this home.  Through hard work they made 
gradual progress and prosperity came surely, if slowly.  In time Mr. Hanson 
rebuilt the house, making it into a nice-looking and very convenient 
residence; and in 1896 he built a barn of 26 x 50 feet, which he subsequently 
enlarged to 26 x 70 feet, putting a full basement under it, with cement floor, 
and providing it with electric lights.  He also erected a fine set of out-
buildings, and continued to farm the property successfully until 1921, when he 
rented it to his son Harold C.  For himself and wife he built a neat little 
modern bungalow close to the farm residence, putting in a pipeless furnace, and 
installing electric lights, as in the other farm buildings.  He and his family 
are members of the Barum Lutheran Church of Elk Mound, which he has served as 
trustee and deacon.  They are the parents of two children:  Anna M., born May 
16, 1889, and Harold C., born April 2, 1893.  The former is now Mrs. Edward 
Meyer, Mr. Meyer being a prominent farmer of Chippewa County and the Meyer 
farm lying just across the road from the Hanson place.  Anna has two children, 
Melvin and Edward.  Harold C., who is now conducting the old home farm of the 
Hanson family, married Marie Jenson of Varney Creek, Dunn County and has two 
children, Evelyn Pauline and Elmer Harland.  Mrs. Katrina Hanson passed away 
March 17, 1925.

-Transcribed from the "History of Dunn County Wisconsin, 1925," page 790