Merced County Biographies

PETER C. HANSEN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        Among the men who have contributed to the development of Merced County, 
Peter C. Hansen occupies a conspicuous place, for he possesses the 
characteristic traits of his countrymen upon which material success is founded. 
The son of Chris and Egidia (Petersen) Hansen, he was born in Ero, Denmark, 
November 2, 1867. His father was a farmer and spent his life in Denmark, dying 
at the age of sixty-eight. There were three children in the family: Hans, Bodil, 
and Peter C. With but an elementary schooling secured in his native place Peter 
C. began to make his own way at the age of fourteen, working around on different 
farms until 1887, when he came to America and landed eventually at Hill's Ferry, 
Stanislaus County. He first found employment as a ranch hand, and later worked 
in the lumber yards at Newman, and after working for wages for four years, began 
to farm on his own account, leasing a grain farm west of Volta, Merced County. 
For many years he raised grain on 700 to 800 acres of land leased from Simon 
Newman. His next move was to the Agua Fria, also known as the Hoffman ranch, of 
800 acres and leased it for four years. He gave up the lease and in April, 1902, 
bought the ranch of forty acres he is now occupying, two miles south of Los 
Banos, which is under the old San Joaquin-Kings River Canal and is devoted to 
alfalfa and a dairy.
        On January 18, 1903, in Los Banos, Mr. Hansen was married to Nellie 
Wright, a daughter of William W. and Corinne (Jones) Wright, the former a native 
of New York State and the latter of California, of Kentucky stock. Mr. Wright 
came to California when quite a young lad and has been a sheep grower for years 
and owns considerable property in the hills sixteen miles out from Los Banos. 
Mrs. Hansen was educated in the Mendezable district school of Merced County and 
they have eight children: Walter C., William B., Margaret B., Helen E., Peter 
C., Nell Virginia, Lucille E., and Mary Belle. Mr. Hansen is a Democrat. 
Fraternally, he is a member of Orestimba Lodge No. 354, I. O. O. F., of Newman, 
and of the Woodmen of the World, of Los Banos. Mrs. Hansen is a member of Los 
Olivas Lodge of Rebekahs and of the Eastern Star of Los Banos. Mr. Hansen has 
been chairman of the Los Banos Center of the Merced County Farm Bureau for two 
years and is now a director of the same.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 881-882