Autobiography of RALPH MORGAN HANSON
GENEALOGY
My father, Alfred Hanson was conceived in Norway, and was born October 16, 1886 in Palo Alto County, Iowa, son of Martin Kristian Hanson and his wife Martha Amundsdtr Moe. Alfred died at the Pelican Lake nursing home, Ashby, Minnesota, on January 11, 1964. My mother was Gertie Linde a daughter of Ola Person Linde and his wife Olena Ivarsdtr Iverson. Gertie was born August 18, 1890 in Lake Mills, Iowa and died December 13, 1948 in Graceville, Minnesota. My older sister was Rose Olava Hanson, born on a farm at Sioux Pass, Montana, on November 30, 1911. She died on October 16, 1960 at Spokane, Washington. My brother was Kenneth Earl Hanson, born on April 13, 1913 on a farm at Sioux Pass, Montana --- he died in San Diego, California on December 27, 1987. My sister Florence Edna Hanson was born on a farm on the shores of Lake Amelia, Pope County, Minnesota, on March 21, 1917. She died on December 6, 1995 in San Diego, California. I was born on a farm located on the shore of Lake Amelia, Pope County, Minnesota on June 12, 1919. I am married to the former Ann Travers Hardy. Our children: Karen Ann Hanson Yarger (daughter is Amy Catherine Yarger), Thomas Morgan Hanson, and David Edward Hanson.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
My father, Alfred Hanson and my mother, Gertie Linde met on her father's (Ola Person Linde) farm located near Lake Mills, Iowa when Dad and another young man were hired to dig a well on the farm. Gertie, being the oldest daughter of O.P.L., was detailed along with one of her younger sisters to deliver the noon lunch to the well diggers. The chemistry between Alfred and Gertie must have been very strong, as the third time he was with her, he gave her a ring and said "We are going to get married and go to Montana to homestead".
They were married at the Linde farm on March 11, 1911. Gertie had been seeing another man, so when the neighbors came to the farm for the wedding they were surprised to see that the groom was some stranger by the name of "Hanson". Alfred and Gertie homesteaded 160 acres in the northeast part of Montana, in a place called Sioux Pass, which was evidently just a swale between two hills --- its location is shown on very few maps. Both Rose and Kenneth were born at Sioux Pass. The closest neighbors lived 2 miles away: the wife had a three page pamphlet on how to birth a baby. Gertie was having a very hard time when her first born was due, she knew that something was amiss, so she started out in the field to find Alfred. Before she found him, she sat down in the field alongside a wild rose bush and delivered her first child. Alfred named the baby ROSE OLAVA HANSON. When the neighbors came the next day to see the new baby, they found that Gertie had baked a batch of bread, and was outside hanging up laundry. After two years of very poor crops, they had a bumper crop of flax. They sold the homestead to the Anderson family and returned to Minnesota to live.
My folks rented a farm on the shores of Lake Amelia near Villard, Pope County, Minnesota. Dad got a job as a railway mail clerk on a route from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Fargo N.D. on the Great Northern Railroad. It was at the farm by Lake Amelia that Florence and I were born. I had some administrative difficulty later on over a proper birth certificate to enter the US NAVAL ACADEMY. In checking with the Pope County records --- they sent me a certified copy of an entry that stated "Alfred Hanson reported this date that he and his wife Gertie had a new son, RALPH MORGAN HANSON, born 12 JUNE 1919". This document did not suffice as being sufficient proof as to the date of birth. I also had a baptismal certificate from the Lutheran Church in Graceville. After several letters back and forth, the Pope County Registrar issued a State of Minnesota birth certificate with the proper seals and signatures. As a baby/youngster I was small and puny, in a bout with the whooping cough my body turned blue and Mother laid me on the bed for dead --- obviously I was not!!