Hans Peter Petersen, Hebron, Nebraska
Hans Peter Petersen was born in 1854, the sixth child of Peter Hansen Petersen and his wife Elise Momsen. Their first child, born in 1844 or 1845, was also called Hans Peter Petersen but apparently died in infancy.
This second Hans was likely named for his deceased older brother as well as for his grandfather, predictably named...Hans Peter Petersen. He's shown standing at the right in this portrait with four of his Petersen brothers.
There was another Hans Peter Petersen in the family as well: his first cousin, son of his uncle and aunt Lorenz and Margaretha Petersen, born in 1850 in Süd-Klixbull. The older Hans married the younger Hans' sister Catharina in 1878. Nice to keep it all in the family.
Hans' parents and younger siblings had made the journey to the new world and Nebraska in 1878, but Hans had a good reason for staying behind at first. He had married Christine Margarethe Johansen, daughter of Peter Johansen and Margarethe Sophie Poulsen of Seewangacker, on April 18, 1878. Hans Peter is listed as a "Fuhrmann," a wagon driver or teamster, in his marriage record.
Their first child, Peter Hansen, was born on the heels of their marriage, on April 22, 1878 in Leck, Schleswig-Holstein. A daughter, Lina Margaretha, followed on June 29, 1880, also in Leck.
Hans emigrated to Nebraska on his own in early 1883, followed several months later by Christine and the two children. The family is enumerated in the Nebraska state census for 1885 in the town of Hebron, Thayer County, Nebraska, where Hans' parents and siblings also lived. Hans was a laborer.
Hans himself cannot be located with certainty after 1885, although the photo of the five Petersen brothers likely dates from around 1895-1900 in Nebraska. Laurel Hill Cemetery in Omaha has notations in its records that a Hans Peter Petersen sold several plots to his brother Alfred when Alfred's wife Meriea Petersen died at a young age in 1893. This could help us verify that Hans and his younger brother Alfred were both in Omaha by that time. Research marches on!
Thanks to our Nebraska cousin, Donald A. Leu, for providing new details about our Petersens in Nebraska, and thanks as always to Klaus Struve for his invaluable archival research in the land of our roots.
