Mr. Hanson
Fictional character who traded his land near Walnut Grove for Charles Ingalls’ horses, colt, and wagon cover.
His hair was pale yellow, his round face was as red as an Indian’s, and his eyes were so pale that they looked like a mistake. – On the Banks of Plum Creek,Chapter 1, “The Door in the Ground”
Since Charles Ingalls’ initial claim north of Walnut Grove, Minnesota – the Plum Creek dugout site – was a preemption claim, not an exchange of property, or an outright purchase conducted between a buyer and a seller, there was no Mr. Hanson involved. In the manuscript for On the Banks of Plum Creek, it was a Mr. Oleson or Mr. Olson (both spellings were used in the manuscript) who occupied the land Charles Ingalls heard about and wanted in trade. In Laura Ingalls Wilder’s handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, there was no other person involved in the land deal. Wilder simply wrote that “they came to such a pretty place by the very nicest creek we had ever seen and were so glad when Pa said it was ours.”
Charles Ingalls’ preemption file from contains a Declaration of Intent to Preempt (No. 22629), filed at the land office in New Ulm, Minnesota, on 26 June
1874. It states that Ingalls settled on the land 28 May 1874. The Bureau of Land Management Tract Book shows that two men had previously filed intents to
preempt this same tract of land: T. E. Hindre in 1870 and Anders Haroldson in 1872. The last had relinquished his claim two years before Charles Ingalls and family arrived in Minnesota; Anders Haroldson was was already living in Iowa in 1874. Because the land was unoccupied at the time Ingalls
established residency, there was obviously no trading involved, with either a Mr. Hanson or anyone else.
“Lars Hanson” – portrayed by actor Karl Swenson (1908-1978) – was a character in the long-running “Little House on the Prairie” television series. Swenson appeared in over forty episodes and had many major storylines, including that as the founder of the fictional town of Walnut Grove and owner of the lumberyard.
The television character was quite the contrast to that of Mr. Hanson in On the Banks of Plum Creek, whose nae was mentioned only twenty times and had no major storyline other than that of a struggling farmer who wanted to go west. In the book, Mr. Hanson leaves the day after the Ingallses arrive, and he is never seen or heard from again.
It is quite possible, however, that Laura Ingalls Wilder remembered a Mr. Hanson in Walnut Grove, and even some communication between him and her father over land matters. Although not mentioned in any of Wilder’s writings, Charles Ingalls had taken advantage of all United States public land laws while
living in Minnesota. On 2 June 1875 Charles Ingalls filed on a tree claim (the SE 4-109-38) located about three miles northeast of his Plum Creek
preemption claim. Plum Creek flowed through both of the Ingalls claims. This tree claim property had previously been the homestead of Gustav Carleson but had been abandoned by him in early 1874. Ingalls was not required to establish or maintain residency on this tree claim, and he continued to hold it during the entire period of time his family resided in Burr Oak, Iowa, from October 1876 until June 1877.
After returning to Minnesota from Iowa, Charles Ingalls relinquished his tree claim on March 1, 1878. On May 9, 1879, he filed on the west half of his former tree claim under the Homestead Act. As this was a homestead claim, Ingalls was required by law to establish residency on the land within six months after filing (so, by November 9, 1879), and to reside on the land for six months each year he homesteaded. It is interesting to note that the person who filed on this original Ingalls homestead claim after its relinquishment by Charles Ingalls was Hans Hanson, who may have been the Mr. Hanson who Laura Ingalls Wilder remembered her father having discussions over land with.
Hans Hanson was born February 1824 in Norway. He and his wife Maren (Olson) Hanson, born January 1824 in Norway, came to America in 1868, settling in Chicago, Illinois. Hans and Maren Hanson had ten children. In 1874, the Hansons moved to Waterbury township in Redwood Count, where Hanson supposedly farmed with a yoke of oxen, although he never filed on any claim in Waterbury Township. On December 1, 1880, Hans Hanson filed on Charles Ingalls’ relinquished homestead in North Hero Township. (Note that this is after the Ingallses had been offered the Surveyors’ House for the winter of 1879-1880, and decided not to “go back east” to spend the winter. Hanson, in turn, relinquished it in 1886 and his son, Charles Hanson, filed on the land as a homestead, making final proof in 1892.
Quite possibly, all descriptions of the character called Mr. Hanson were completely fictional, and not based on the appearance of any known person. In both writings and interviews, Wilder used the phrases “red as an Indian,” “brown as an Indian,” and/or “black as an Indian” to describe the man. In the late nineteenth century, such racist and stereotypical views were common expressions by Americans of all age groups, all social classes, and in all regions. Mr. Hanson was apparently a fair-skinned man and had tanned or sunburned skin, which was typical of almost any white man who worked long hours in the fields in the sun. [Wolfgang Mieder, “‘The Only Good Indian is a Dead Indian’: History and Meaning of a Proverbial Stereotype.” Journal of American Folklore 106 (1993).]
Mr. Hanson (BPC 1-2, 8); see also Charles Ingalls and the U.S. Public Land Laws