HANSEN, CHRIS AND AMANDA (WATT) AND CHARLES

by Margaret E. Hansen

Entry F180 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Grandma Amanada V. Hansen, twins Mary and Mariam
and Margaret about 1921

Jorgen Christian Hansen immigrated to
the United States in 1867. Germany conquer-
ed the part of Denmark where he lived and
drafted him into the German army to fight
the Austrians. He said he had fought the
Germans and he was not going to fight for
them. He never used the name Jorgen after
he came to the United States, probably
because the Danish pronunciation was not
acceptable here. He settled in Michigan first
where he worked harvesting logs. He was
engaged to a Danish girl there, but she died.
He took care of her during her illness. In 1878
he went to Webster County, Nebraska where
in 1882 he married Amanda Watt who had
come with her parents when she was 11 years
old by covered wagon from eastern Illinois.
Chris bought a farm across the road from
Amanda's parents. When their two sons,
Alpha and Charles were grown, they decided
to buy a farm for each of their sons. To make
the first purchase they mortgaged their farm
for the down payment and the new farm for
the rest, but crops on the two farms did not
prove sufficient to pay off either mortgage
and the lender foreclosed on both farms.
They were able to keep $200 because Aman-
da's father testified that they intended to
make their original farm their permanent
home.

They decided to go to the Sandhills where
homesteades were still available. In 1915 they
homesteaded in Southeast Hooker County
near the Dismal River. With the help of their
son Charles they shipped several head of
cattle and loaded their household goods into
an emigrant car and took the train from
Guide Rock to Seneca. Their son Alpha who
had gone ahead and Mr. McMurtry who
would be one of their neighbors met them
with a team and wagon. They rode out 18
miles into the country to McMurtry's ranch.
They stayed with the McMurtry's until their
sod house was constructed.

Chris and sons, Alpha and Charles each
homesteaded a section of land (640 acres).
Chris and Amanda were able to buy another
section. They constructed a one room sod
house 24 X 14 feet. This may be the size of
their second home. Their daughter-in-law
wrote her mother June 2, 1916 that Alpha's
parents planned to move into their new house
next week. It was a sod house. Furniture was
used to divide it into two rooms and a third
was sometimes made by placing a curtain
between the beds. Pear cactus was set around
the house to prevent the dogs from digging.
Granddaughter, Margaret learned to give
them a wide path after falling down in them
once.

Amanda missed the fruit they had been
used to harvesting from their trees on the
farm in Webster County. The only wild fruit
was choke cherries and plums along the river.
If she sent to town for a quarter's worth of
dried apples, they came home with a little
sack full that would hardly cover the bottom
of a kettle. It took two days to go to town and
back; then frequently you could not get what
you wanted because they did not keep it in
stock.

In 1932 she told granddaughter Margaret
about the problem which caused them to lose
many cattle. A cow would be all right in the
morning and at noon she would come in
humped up and groaning. At first they didn't
know what the trouble was. Some of the
neighbors said they needed grain, but the
Hansens finally decided someone must be
poisoning them because they had taken
another man's cattle to range. His stock and
the Hansen's ran on the same range. He lost
practically none. By accident they discovered
an antidote. Alpha was spraying the barn one
day and there was a sick steer in the barn. He
began to drink the dip which had been set
near him. Alpha let him drink thinking he
would die anyway, but he got well. After that
when a cow showed symptoms of poisoning,
they gave her a dose of creasote and linseed
oil and kept her moving for a while. She
usually got well. Chris threatened to shoot
any stranger seen around their cowpen who
did not come to the house first. In a letter
May 22, 1916 Alpha's wife, Ethel stated, "We
are fully persuaded that it was poison that
killed our cattle. The blood did not thicken
as it usually does in an animal that dies, but
remained for some time thin and watery.
Mother Hansen thought they looked like a
poisoned mouse. Were it not for the fact that
we had our neighbor, Mr. Schneider's cattle
all the latter part of the winter eating the
same feed as ours and looking better all the
time instead of worse, we would think the
poison was in the feed. There is a smut which
is sometimes in wild rye which is very
poisonous. Of course we hate to think anyone
had poisoned them, but they got it some way.
There is a Miss Witt who has a quarter
section of land adjoining Ma's and Charlie's.
She has been contesting some of Charlie's
land. Of course it would be natural to
suspicion her or some of her friends, but there
is no way of knowing how it was done. There
were six milk cows died. We are indeed
thankful that there are as many left as there
are." There is no way of knowing if the
Hansens ran their cattle together and if the
six cows lost were for all three homesteader
of it Alpha lost that many. Evidently whoever
was responsible gave up either from lack of
success or because of Chris's threat.

Charles was unable to prove up on his
homestead because it was claimed he did not
live there enough of the time. He and his
parents moved to Mullen the fall of 1920 and
lived with Alpha and Ethel; Chris and
Charles helping on the dray and Amanda
with the children. They moved to Dunning
and Palmer and back to Mullen in 1930. The
place east of Mullen was deeded to Charles
because his money from service in the army
was needed to pay back taxes. Chris died in
1931 and Amanda in 1943. Charles lived on
the property until his death in 1970.