Peter Knutsen Family

KNUTSEN, SORENSEN, PETERSEN

Posted By: Cathy Joynt Labath (email)
Date: 9/21/2006 at 19:06:34

--From Graettinger [Palo Alto Co, IA] Centennial 1893-1993 p. 266-267

PETER KNUTSEN FAMILY

Peter Knutsen Sorensen was born on July 9, 1858 near Aalborg, Denmark. Both of his parents had died before he came to America at the age of thirty-one. Grandfather Knutsen worked at various type of farm jobs and herded cattle for other farmers before he decided to come to America by himself. His attention, too, was drawn to northwestern Iowa and the Danish settlement which had already been started near Emmetsburg, Iowa. Here he got a job as a hired man for a farmer who already owned a large amount of land. My grandfather did not see the necessity for his double last name of Knutsen Sorensen, so shortly after he got to this country, he dropped the more common name, Sorensen, and went by the name Peter S. Knutsen.

Peter S. Knutsen had been in America about three years before he married Martha Kirstine Petersen on September 30, 1892. They were the first couple married in the new country church. Peter and Martha had probably met at a wedding or some neighborhood gatherine. At any rate, one can easily see how they would come into contact with each other by living in the same neighborhood with the same Danish background. My grandfather was no longer working as a hired man for a farmer, but was now the “town drayman” for the lumber company in Emmetsburg. In inquiring about such a job, I found out that it would be much like our trucking business today. Grandfather had a team of horses and delivered lumber and supplies around town. He worked for about ten years at this job and lived in the town of Emmetsburg, Iowa. Here their first daughter was born. She was named Mary Sorine, but her time in this world was short. She lived to be almost four years old and became sick with diphtheria and passed away. The second child of Peter and Martha was born on April 28, 1895. This was my father, Jorgen Willard, and he was the oldest member of their family of four boys. My father does not remember his sister for he was not quite two years old when she died.

Peter Knutsen was aided by his father-in-law, my great grandfather, Jorgen Petersen, in buying a farm. The farm he bought and moved his family to was known as the Knud Thuesen homestead, which is three miles south and two and one-half miles west of Graettinger, Iowa. My father was six years old when his parents moved to this farm and began farming for themselves. This is the same farm on which I grew up as a child and my father is still farming, although we now have a home in Graettinger and he drives back and forth to do the work.

--- Ruby Petersen Argue.