August Hanson

Next door neighbor to the west of the Ingallses on Third Street in De Smet.

C.P. Ingalls is excavating a cellar preparatory to the erection of a residence on his lot east of August Hanson’s. -De Smet Leader, October 1, 1887.

     
Not a character in the Little House books or mentioned in Wilder’s handwritten Pioneer Girl memoir, August Carl Hanson (1846-1924) would have been well-known by both the Ingallses and Wilders in De Smet, as he lived next door to the Charles & Caroline Ingalls on Third Street; he ran a mercantile store in De Smet; and he and his family were active members of the Congregational Church.

August Hanson came to De Smet from Lawrence County D.T. in 1883 with his wife, Sophia, and their three children. Hanson was Swedish and his wife was Norwegian; they were married in 1876 in Decorah (Winneshiek Co.) Iowa, moving to Lead City shortly after their marriage. The Hansons had ten children, most born in De Smet – two died in 1885 of diphtheria and two apparently died in 1897 of asphyxiation due to an improperly vented hay-burning stove. Daughter May was a classmate of Rose Wilder’s, and daughter Camilla was active in the temperance union as was Carrie Ingalls. Sophia Hanson died suddenly in August 1899, and August Hanson decided to move his store to Fedora in 1904; he never returned to De Smet to live. The De Smet News of September 9, 1904 reported: “In the removal of A.C. Hanson to Fedora, De Smet loses one of its oldest business men. Mr. Hanson came to De Smet in March 1883, and has been engaged in the mercantile business ever since. He has done his share toward building up our town, and his methods of dealing with this customers has helped to establish and maintain a good name for De Smet. Mr. Hanson does not move away because he no longer enjoys living in De Smet, but because he feels that there is a better opening elsewhere. For himself and family all in De Smet have the most kindly feeling and all will be glad to learn of their prosperity in their new home. Mr. Hanon has been a consistent and faithful member of the Congregational Church during all the years of his residence here, and his withdrawal will be greatly felt by that society.”

Both August and Sophia Hanson are buried in the De Smet Cemetery, as are five or six children (the children in unmarked graves north of their parents).

While living in De Smet, August Hanson served as Clerk of Courts, deputy Register of Deeds, and he was elected Register of Deeds in 1889. He also was an officer in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was in business with Alexander Ferguson, occupying the building that became W.M. Robinson Hardware, with a meeting room upstairs known as Society Hall that was used by several societies; the building burned in the early 1920s. In 1895, Hanson opened a general merchandise store in the Elliott building (which had previously been rented by Charles Ingalls) in partnership with Stephen Root. The Elliott building was the brick building on the Tom Power tailor shop lot built there after the original tailor shop was moved near the courthouse and converted to a residence. August Hanson’s brother, Hans, also came to De Smet in the early years. He opened a jewelry store in the Bennett building on the east side of Calumet, but was soon bought out by George Bradley. Following the death of his wife, Hans Hanson left De Smet and trained to be a doctor. Dr. Hanson had a medical practice in Beresford for many years.

In 1885, August Hanson purchased Lots 10 & 11, Block 10 of Brown’s First Addition to the Village of De Smet, located at the corner of First Avenue (now Loftus Avenue, S.W.) and Third Street. Caroline Ingalls purchased the lot to the east (Lot 12) from Eliza Jane Wilder in 1886, and Caroline purchased Lot 13 from Royal Wilder in 1888. Lot 14 was owned for many years by Caroline’s brother, Thomas Quiner, while the property at the east end of the block was owned by Thomas Ruth. In 1889, August Hanson had architect Thomas Wilkin (father of Florence, head of Wilkin School, who Laura boarded with when teaching the Wilkin School, etc.) design him a house, and excavation on the cellar began in late May. The June 29 De Smet Leader reported: “We are pleased to notice among other improvements in our young city, the new residence of A.C. Hanson, which under the magical skill of T.C. Wilkin is rapidly hastening toward completion. When finished Mr. H. will have one of the finest residences in town.” It was ready for occupancy in October.

The Hansons’ house was apparently grander or more elaborately finished inside than the Ingallses’ next door; for example, in 1891 tax records, the Hanson home was valued at $800 while the Ingalls home was worth $125. The house was apparently still standing in the late 1970s, and there’s a more recently built home on the former Hanson lots now. In the old postcard image above, the photographer was standing in front of the house built by Banker Ruth (now Prairie House Manor B&B), looking west. The Horace Perry house was the second house built on the lot that had been owned by Tom Quiner (it is still standing); the funeral home is on the lot between the Perry house and the Ingalls house, and the Hanson house was on the corner to the west of the Ingallses. If you have a photo of the Hanson house (which was sold to August Larson and referred to as the Larson homw for many decades), would you please email? I’d love to see what it looked like! The drawing here is from the 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and shows the footprints of the four homes on the block at the time.

This photo of Rose Wilder & friends was added to later editions of On the Way Home. It’s said to be of participants in Children’s Day exercises at the Congregational Church shortly before the Wilders left De Smet. Other than Rose (second from left in middle row), the others aren’t identified in On the Way Home, but the man kneeling in front is August Hanson, supposedly holding son Frank. Four of the Hanson daughters are also in the photo, which has been on display at the Congregational Church in past years during tourist season. I’ve never seen the original photograph and I don’t know who originally identified people in the photo, and when.

If the photo was taken before the Wilders left for Missouri in 1894, then the baby identified as Frank Hanson couldn’t be Frank, because he was born in 1897. If it is Frank, then the photo was dated incorrectly and the girl identified as Rose couldn’t be Rose. My guess is the baby in the photo is Frank’s younger brother, William (one of the Hanson children who died in 1897).

The photograph may not be of the Children’s Day group from right before the Wilders left De Smet, either. The exercises were written up in the Kingsbury County Independent, and they took place on June 23, 1894; the Wilders left De Smet on July 17th. While six boys were mentioned as participating in the exercises in the newspaper article, one of them was identified as Boyd Trousdale, and he’s not in the picture. Mina Sasse and Blanche Peirson were also mentioned, and neither are in the photo.

     

Augusts Hanson