Pete & Minnie begin their married life together

After Peter J. and Hannah E. (Minnie) Hansen were married, the couple farmed in Iowa three years with Pete’s brother, Henry, and his wife, Goldie, on land rented from their father, Jacob Hansen. Their first child, Esther Pearl, was born on January 7, 1912, in a country farmhouse about five miles northwest of Havelock. The weather was severely cold at the time of her birth, 30 degrees below zero, and the doctor coming out by horse and cutter froze his hands and feet! Aunt Goldie enjoyed helping Minnie take care of the new baby. Aunt Hannah (Pete’s sister) was happy because Esther happened to be born on her birthday. When Esther was a little over two months of age, her parents took her to her Olson grandparent’s home, south of Alpha, Minnesota, to be baptized on March 21, 1912, by Rev. JH Ford from the Dunnell Swedish Lutheran Church. Her sponsors were her grandparents, Andrew and Anna Olson, and her aunt and uncle, Alma and Henry Petersen.

Esther Pearl Hansen - 6 mo. old (1912)




In 1913 when Esther was 14 months old, Pete and Minnie took four horses and a lumber wagon and drove as far as Graettinger, Iowa, the first night. The next day they drove to a farm they rented near Alpha, Minnesota. The 160 acre farm in Petersburg Township was rented from Gus Anderson, a photographer in Jackson.
At the age of three years, Esther was very ill with scarlet fever. She was quarantined with her mother in a bedroom for 4-6 weeks. During that time her mother did some beautiful hardanger embroidery to pass the time while Esther slept. Aunt Emma (Pete’s sister) came to help keep house – cooking and washing clothes.
Esther remembers her Dad bringing in the mail including a newspaper telling that the United States had entered the First World War on April 6, 1917.
On July 31, 1917, her brother, Arthur Lawrence, was born. Esther was especially happy as she told her aunt, Elizabeth Hansen, “We have a new baby and a new Buick! Why don’t you get a new baby and a new Buick?” Her parent’s first car was a 1917 – 4 cylinder Buick. Her Dad did all the driving since Minnie never learned to drive. She tried it one time and never again!
Esther started school at Petersburg Consolidated School at the age of 5 ½ years in September 1917. She didn’t know anyone at school and was quite bashful. She had good teachers at Petersburg and they let her visit with them during recess until she got acquainted with the other children. There was a spiral fire escape on the side of the school but Esther was too scared to go down it. She rode to school on a school bus pulled by horses. She was in an accident once when the bus skidded around a corner and tipped over. Several children were cut by glass but Esther was not hurt.

Esther and Arthur Hansen (1918)



Esther with her brothers, Arthur & Gordon (1921)



They lived on the Petersburg Township farm seven years and added two boys to the family. Gordon Arnold was born July 14, 1920, close to their mother’s birthday, July 11. Minnie was 37, Pete was 42, Esther was 8, and Art was almost 3 when Gordon arrived. They had saved enough money to buy a 160 acre farm two miles west of Alpha and lived there from 1920-1934. They experienced many hardships there – floods, loss of crops and livestock, depression years, and they lost the farm. Esther remembers some years when the weather was dry and their well would go dry. Her Dad would have to haul water by a team of horses and wagon from the neighbor’s well. The water was dipped by pail from his water tank to Pete’s tank on the wagon. It was very hard work – no hoses or motors to help. Pete was feeding cattle so they needed lots of water. Esther never wastes water – perhaps because water conservation was taught to her at a young age!
This farm was located next to the road that would become Highway 16. However, when they moved to the farm it was just a plain dirt road. Later the road was graded up and graveled. Then in 1931, it was paved. A big road grading outfit camped in a pasture west of their big grove with many horses.
Esther remembers once when her parents were gone to Oklahoma, she fixed supper for her younger brothers, Art and Gordon. A storm came up and they went to their storm cellar. When the storm passed and they returned to eat their supper, they found the food covered with dirt. So they threw the food away and fixed supper again!
Her parents worked very hard on this farm – farming with horses, milking several cows, and raising hogs and chickens. Esther especially remembers bringing the cows home from the pasture with the assistance of their old dog, “Shep”. She also remembers setting the hens, hatching the chicks, and feeding the chicks and hens in individual coops in the grove.
In 1925, Esther graduated from the 8th grade at District 19 country school. After leaving the Petersburg school in March 1920, she attended school in Alpha school for a year or so and then transferred to District 19 school. In Alpha, her parents would have to pay $5 a month as they did not live in the Alpha district. She remembers getting rides to school (2 ½ miles) in her Dad’s buggy, the neighbors fancy enclosed buggy, wagons, cars, and bobsleds. Usually they would take her in the morning and she would have to walk home in the evening unless the weather was very bad. After her brother, Arthur, started school in 1923, they exchanged rides with the neighbors.

Her family started attending Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Jackson in the 1920’s. Esther was confirmed on October 17, 1926 by Rev. SC Eastvold.
In 1934, her parents moved to another farm they bought north of Jackson until they retired in 1946, moving to a house in Jackson. -Marita