LARS J. LARSEN

Lars J. Larsen was born in Oslo, Norway, May 5, 1869, of parents Amund and Hannah Larsen.  He came with his parents to America at the age of two.  The family spent the first winter at McGregor, Iowa, and then homesteaded near Scandia, Kansas.  Lars attended the rural school District 88 south of Scandia.  He was baptized in Oslo, Norway, and confirmed in St. Luke's Lutheran Church near Jamestown, Kansas.  As a young lad, to make some money, he herded cattle for fifty cents a day for a farmer, Ole Olsen, south of Norway.

When Lars was 24 years old, he bought the Farington farm in January 1893, one mile est of Norway.  He married Karen Tiller January 10, 1894 and they lived in their dugout home, which had a little front structure of wood built out.  In this home, their two children, Anton and Ellen were born.  Mrs. Larsen passed away on November 4, 1900, of typhoid fever, so didn't get moved into the new home Mr. Larsen was building.

Lars was a telephone serviceman for the Farmer's Telephone company for several years.  He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Scandia forty-six years.  Following his retirement from farming, he spent several winters in Florida and Texas.  There he enjoyed fishing and a hobby of making sea shell jewelry.  E. H. Bartlett, Pete Pehrson, and Eric Thompson have accompanied him on these trips.

Mr. Larsen passed away at the Scandia Rest Home, September 13, 1961, at the age of 92 years after being an invalid for three years having suffered a stroke.  He had four grandchildren, Capt. Eugene Larsen, who has been a pilot instructor in the Air Corps, Leo Hammer employed at a missile base in Denver, Colorado, Mrs. John Walser, a registered nurse, whose husband is a wholesale salesman for pen companies and lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, and Merle Hammer, bookkeeper at the Santa Fe Offices in Topeka, Kansas.  His eleven great-grandchildren include Janine Larsen of Pease, New Hampshire, Paul, Mike, Doris, David and Christine Hammer of Littleton, Colorado, Janet, Jay and Stephenie Walser of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Roxane and Dale Hammer of Topeka, Kansas.  Mrs. Walser is the former Elaine Hammer, Leo Hammer married Eleda Dahl of Hardy, Nebraska, and Merle Hammer married Norma Laird of silver Lake, Kansas.  Captain Eugene Larsen married Narwilde Rose Hautem of Washington, D. C.

Written by Mrs. Ellen Hammer