Obit: Hansen, Nels P. (1861 - 1940)

Contact: Stan
Email:  stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Hansen, Larsen, Christensen, Clock, Lorentzen, Freitag, Soli, Jacobsen

----Sources: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 03/14/1940

Hansen, Nels P. (18 JAN 1861 - 9 MAR 1940)

N.P. Hansen, retired implement dealer and wagon maker of early days, died of pneumonia on Saturday, March 9th, 1940, at Neillsville, where he has resided for the past year. He had reached the age of 79 years, 1 month and 20 days.

Nels Peter Hansen was born in Denmark on Jan. 18, 1861. He came to America at the age of 21 years and settled in Colby, Wis., coming to Thorp (Clark Co., Wis.) in 1889. His first wife, to whom he was married in 1882, passed away in 1895. On Nov. 25, 1897, he was united in marriage to Karen Larsen, who preceded him in death on July 17, 1933.

Mr. Hansen is probably one of the oldest wood workers, who built up a business here when Thorp was but a hamlet, and who in later years became the largest farm implement dealer in this territory. He was active in village affairs up to the time of his retirement in 1926, and served as a member of the Village Board and director in the Farmers Exchange Bank. He also belonged to the Modern Woodmen Lodge of Thorp and the Danish Brotherhood of Withee, Wis.

As the early landmarks of our little village disappear, so to, does the group of pioneers who founded Thorp, diminish one by one. Though both become specters of a distant past, the memory of places and deeds will linger long in our hearts.

Surviving relatives are six sons, Ernest of Milwaukee, Magnus, Peru, Ind., Albert, Thorp, Einar and Harold, Madison, and Fred of Wyandotte, Mich.; five daughters, Mrs. Clara Christensen, Withee, Mrs. Laura Clock, Detroit, Mrs. Etna Lorentzen, Minneapolis, Mrs. Mattie Freitag, Milwaukee, Wis., and Mrs. Margaret Soli of Thorp; one sister, Mrs. K.F. Jacobsen of Racine; two brothers, William of Manistee, Mich. And Julius of Racine; also nine grandchildren.

Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Jens Holst of Withee, at two o’clock Tuesday afternoon at the Bogumill Funeral Home at Thorp.

The six sons of the deceased acted as pallbearers and he was laid to rest in the East Thorp Cemetery.