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S. M. Lorenzen
Born May 15, 1843 |
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| S. M. Lorenzen, an enterprising and progressive farmer of Jones county, belongs to that class of representative American citizens who claim Germany as the land of their nativity and who in the new world have found opportunity for advancement and progress. He was born in Schleswig-Holstein on the 15th of May, 1843, his parents being Barney and Helen Lorenzen, who spent their entire lives in the fatherland, where the father was a laborer. The subject of this review was next to the youngest in a family of three sons and two daughters. One brother N. B., came to the United States and passed away in Ohio.
In the common schools of his native country S. M. Lorenzen acquired his education and he remained under the parental roof until the year 1865 when, having previously heard rumors concerning the good opportunities offered in the new world, and thinking to find better business advantages in this country, he crossed the Atlantic and upon his arrival in. America came direct to Iowa, locating in Clinton county. He was employed by the month as a farm hand, continuing in that capacity until 1881, when he came to Jones county, locating in Oxford township, where for fifteen years he carried on agricultural pursuits as a renter. That he was industrious, persevering and thrifty is indicated by the fact that at the expiration of that period he had accumulated sufficient means wherewith to purchase a farm of his own, and he now owns a fine farming property of two hundred and forty acres on sections 31 and 32, Hale township, and ten acres of timber land located three miles north of the farm. The unceasing effort and intelligently directed diligence of Mr. Lorenzen have made of his place a highly cultivated farm, the appearance of which indicates a spirit of progress and thrift upon the part of the owner. In its midst stand good buildings and it is equipped with all of the modern accessories of a model farm, most of the improvements having been placed thereupon by our subject.
It was in the year 1878 that Mr. Lorenzen was united in marriage to B. Johanna Christophersen, who was born in 1859 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; and came alone to the United States about 1871. Unto this union have been born six children, namely: Helena, the wife of Rudolph C. Dethman, of Hale township; Julius B., at home; Anna, the wife of Jacob Levesen, also residing in this township; Amanda, Bernhart and Louis, all at home.
Since becoming a naturalized American citizen Mr. Lorenzen has given stalwart allegiance to the democracy, and is serving as a school director, the cause of education finding in him a warm champion. He has never found occasion to regret his determination to seek his fortune in this country, for here where individual effort is unhampered by caste or class he has attained a most creditable degree of success so that he is numbered among the substantial and representative farmers of his section of the county.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 525. |
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