Scott Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project

Descendants of Peter Hans Hansen

Researched by Elaine Rathmann

Peter Hans Hansen was a Thatcher (Thatch Roofer) and was called Hans Tacker (Hans the Roofer).

Anne Marie was a leader in the community and in the church. She was a devout Baptist and passed her faith on to her children and grandchildren. She possibly died near Ballum, North Schleswig, Denmark, where Christian Hansen (son) was born.

Christian was born on a farm a short distance from Ballum, North Schleswig, Denmark. (It is possible at that time that North Schleswig and Southern Jutland were one and the same. The boundaries changed and I have not yet researched the time frame for this.)

Christian and his brother Martin came to Indiana in 1875. They became US citizens in 1880 and it is thought that at this time the surname spelling was changed from "Hansen" to "Hanson" because Christian thought that was the way it should be spelled in America. In 1884, Christian and Martin moved to Iowa and bought 80 acres of good farm land four miles north of Alta, in Buena Vista County. On March 6, 1886, Christian married Jensene Marie Hansen who had arrived from Copenhagen, Denmark. Christian bought Martin's share and added 80 acres to the east of it where he built the farm home on a hillside near a small stream. Here he lived and raised his family until retirement in 1920, when he moved to Alta to live for seven years, then to Des Moines to live with Margaret and Hans Hanson.

Christian was a hard worker and took good care of his crops and stock. He was a very successful farmer. He was a devout Christian. In May 1884, he and 12 other Baptists organized the Elk Baptist Church, Abt 6 miles north of Alta.

He also had an intense interest in community affairs and in meteorology. His interest in meteorology made him the weather prophet of the community. He knew about the movements of high and low pressure systems, frontal movements of storms and could predict weather changes with a surprising degree of accuracy.

Marie (Jensene Marie) and her brother Peter Hansen arrived in Buena Vista Co., near Alta, IA., in May, 1885. Peter was in ill health and died soon after arrival. Marie met Christian Hanson at the newly organized church and they were married on March 6, 1886.

Marie joined the Elk Baptist Church in the first baptismal service to be held there, on June 5, 1887. She was an inspiring wife and mother, and passed on to her children the intense desire for knowledge she inherited from her father. At a time when it was unusual for a farm youth to go beyond 8th grade, five of her seven children attended college. Three of these graduated and went on to graduate work. One obtained an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree and the other two earned Doctor of Philosophy degrees in science.

Received his M.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1928. Served as Prof. of Political Science at the University of Shanghai, Shanghai, China for more than 30 years. He was sponsored there as a Baptist missionary. He was the first non-Asian president (pro tem) at the end of the 1930's. He and daughter Marie were taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese and incarcerated in a POW camp for 3 years at the start of WW II when Japan invaded China.

He spoke eight languages fluently, including several dialects of Chinese, Japanese, English, Danish, Swedish, and German.

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Obituary of Victor Hanson

Times Democrat

Davenport, Iowa

January 11, 1971

Death Takes Missionary

Dr. Victor Hanson, 84, Redlands, Calif., a Baptist missionary-educator to China from 1914-1945 where he was professor of political science at the University of Shanghai, died Saturday at a Redlands retirement home.

Dr. Hanson served after 1945 on the faculty of Kanto Gakuin University, Yokosaka, Japan.

A memorial service and cremation are scheduled in Redlands.

Dr. Hanson was born in Alta, Iowa. He married Lucia Parks in Sutherland, Iowa.

He was a graduate of Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa where he received an honorary doctorate degree.

Dr. Hanson is survived by his wife, sons, James C., Davenport; William L., Seattle, Wash.; daughters Mrs. Marie Thompson, Lafayette, Calif., and Mrs. Harriet Headley, Salem, N.H.; 11 grandchildren, a sister, Mrs. Ann Dedrick, Des Moines, and brothers, Dr. Arthur C., Davenport; Dr. Alvin B., Charleston, S.C.; Charles, Cedar Falls, and Raymond, Humboldt, Iowa.

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Less than 2 months after her marriage to Victor, in September of 1911, at the age of 20, Lucia and he left for China on SS Manchuria from San Francisco. In 1914 they lived in Nanking for a while for language study. In 1915 they moved to Shanghai, where she lived for the next 30 years.

Director of the Rock Island Arsenal Laboratory

James’ parents were Baptist missionaries stationed in Shanghai when James was born in 1917. James used to tell stories of his largely unsupervised childhood there. He and a friend, Ernie Banks, built a small boat when they were about 13 yrs old. They intended to sail a ways down the Yangtze River. Unfortunately, the current was swifter than anticipated and they were swept nearly to the mouth of the river and out into the sea. They were able to cling to a buoy until a very angry Chinese fisherman came along and towed them back upstream to their departure point. James attended the University of Iowa and became a Mechanical Engineer. When WW II broke out, James was enlisted in the Navy. He shipped out on the USS Ashtabula, a tanker that fueled the Navy battleships, as a radar operator. One battle he served in was Leyte Gulf.

Obituary in the Moline Daily Dispatch Thursday, August 26, 1982

James C. Hanson

Services for James C. Hanson, 64, of 2121 W. Central Park Ave., Davenport, will be 1 p.m. Friday at Weerts-Hill & Fredericks Funeral Home, Davenport. Burial will be in Davenport Memorial Park.

Visitation is until 5 this afternoon and 7 to9 tonight at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to American Cancer Society or Newcomb Presbyterian Church, Davenport, of which he was a member.

Mr. Hanson died Tuesday at University Hospitals, Iowa City.

He retired in 1974 from Rodman Laboratories, Rock Island Arsenal.

Mr. Hanson married Marian Bell in 1943 in Davenport.

He was a Navy veteran of World War II.

Survivors include his widow; a daughter; a son; his mother, Mrs. Lucia Hanson, Redlands, Calif.; sister, Mrs. James Thompson, Lafayette, Calif., and Mrs. Cary Headley, Salem, N.H., and a brother William, Seattle.

Marian wanted to become a nurse after high school, but her father, who was quite elderly by that time, became very ill. She began to take night classes at Augustana College for a nursing degree. On the death of her father, however, she had to quit school and work to support her mother and herself. She began to work for Dr. Howard Weis, MD, who was new here, and the first obstetrician/gynecologist in eastern Iowa at the time. So, in a way, her career choice was fulfilled, as she was his only employee for a while and he trained her to assist him. She was very close to Dr. Weis and his wife, May. Dr Weis was murdered by his eldest son, Richard, in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Marian dearly loved Estes Park, CO., and she and her husband, Jim and their children spent many happy summer vacations there.

Obituary in Davenport's "Times Democrat", Monday, April 8, 1985

Marian Hanson

Services for Marian N. Hanson, 64, of 2121 W. Central Park Ave., Davenport, will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at Weerts/Hill & Fredericks Funeral Home, Davenport. Burial will be in Davenport Memorial Park.

Visitation is 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. today.

Memorials may be made to the American Lung Association or Newcomb Presbyterian Church, Davenport, of which she was a member.

Mrs. Hanson died Sunday at St. Lukes Hospital.

Marian Bell married James C. Hanson in 1943 in Davenport. He died in 1982.

Survivors include a daughter, son and grandchild, all of Davenport.

Occupation: attorney in Seattle, Washington. Graduated from Harvard Law School.