This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hansen, Olson Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/RJB.2ACI/373.1 Message Board Post: Book: An Illustrated History of the counties of Rock and Pipestone Minnesota By: Arthur P. Rose, Member of the Minnesota Historical Society Publisher: Northern History Publishing Company, Luverne, MN 1911 P. 455. The date in parens is when he came to the county. All punctuation is as it appears in the book. Ole Hansen (1872) is one of Rock county’s early pioneers and one of the county’s largest land owners. Seven hundred twenty acres of Kanaranzi township’s soil and 520 acres in Clinton township are recorded to his credit. The son of Hans and Mary Christianson, he was born in Denmark on December 13, 1848. On his fathers’ farm in the native land he grew to young manhood, receiving a common school education at the village school near by. At the age of twenty his career in America began. The first five years he lived near Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1872 he cast his lot with others who were to pave the way for Rock county’s future prosperity. He homesteaded the northwest quarter of section 8, Kanaranzi township, and in those days it was necessary to walk to and from Jackson, where the government land office was located, to file on claims. Mr. Hansen retained this original holding for only six months, when he disposed of his right to P. Jen! sen. Soon after, he bought the southwest quarter of section 30, in the same township, and made that his home until 1905, when he moved to his present location in Clinton township, the southwest quarter of section 25, where his labors continue to be blessed, as they have for nearly forty years past. Mr. Hansen is a man of family. His marriage to Esther Olson, the daughter of Ole and Sennef Blinsmon, of Clinton county, Iowa, who were early day settlers in America from their native land of Norway, took place in Kanaranzi township on September 26, 1876. The following named eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hansen: Handy O., Carl G., Albert H., Martin H., Viola A. and two girls and one boy who are deceased. Mr. Hansen is a member of the Presbyterian church. For twenty years he served school district No. 24 as its treasurer, and at the present time he is treasurer of district No. 1. He was a member of the township board four years.