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HANS JACOBSEN

Although Denmark is a small kingdom and far remote from Fayette county, Iowa, she has sent a fair representative of her best citizenship to this and other localities of our great republic, and wherever the Danes have settled they have become integral parts of our great body politic, being law-abiding, progressive, honest, as a rule, and in every respect welcomed to the protection of the stars and stripes to which they have ever been loyal. One of the most conspicuous representatives of this class in Fayette county is Hans Jacobsen, one of the leading farmer and stock raisers of the county, his highly improved and valuable landed estate lying near the city of West Union.

Mr. Jacobsen was born in Denmark in 1845, and he is the son of Lewis and Mary (McGrater) Jacobsen, both native of Denmark and each representing excellent old families there. The parents of the subject spent their lives in their home country on a farm and died there. Their son, Hans, assisted with the farm duties on the home place when a boy and received his education in the common schools. His imagination had been fired by the wonderful stories of opportunities in the western republic and he early in life began to plan to come here, believing that he would be enabled to carve out a fortune for himself if given a fair opportunity, and, judging from the eminent success that has attended his efforts, one would conclude that he was wise in reaching and carrying out this early decision. It was in 1879 that he set sail for our shores. He remained in the state of New York, settling near Utica for a period of eight years, working on different farms until he got a start. He was economical, saved his money and, believing that the West offered advantages for securing land that were superior to any thing the East had to offer, he came to Windsor township, Fayette county, Iowa, and purchased eighty acres and lived on it for a period of four years, making a good living and adding to his competence. He then purchased one hundred and forty acres in Union township, where he now lives, engaged in diversified farming in a most successful manner, He has a cozy and substantial dwelling and good outbuildings.

Mr. Jacobsen was married in 1887, while living at Utica, New York, to Elena Marie Jensen, the daughter of an industrious and highly honored family, and this union resulted in the birth of the following children: Laura, Jensena, James, Alie and Lena. Laura married George Alcorn, and Jensena married Charley Bartels, who is living in South Dakota on a farm of four hundred and eighty acres, Mrs. Jacobsen died September 4, 1894, and about a year later Mr. Jacobsen married her sister, Jensine Jensen, at Cedar Falls, Black Hawk county.

Politically, Mr. Jacobsen is a Republican and while he has not found time to take much interest in political matters he has served as school director. He is a Presbyterian in religious matters. 

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Cheryl Walker