N.E. Hansen
Agriculture Brookings, SD
N. E. Hansen was born January 4, 1866 in Ribe Parish, Denmark. A year and a half later, death visited the Hansen home claiming the life of Niels’s mother, Bodil Marie Midtgård, leaving his father Andreas without a wife and young Niels and his two older sisters without a mother. Two years later his father remarried and when Niels was seven they came to America. His stepmother, Kristine Petersen Hansen, instilled in him a love of education, both religious and secular. The family eventually made their home at Des Moines, IA. Hansen attended and graduated high school there. At the age of 16 his stepmother also passed away. Hansen was fluent in Danish, English, and German. He was a proficient writer all his life. He spent a portion of each day writing in his journal, keeping notes, and writing poetry. However, he chose to go to the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames where he studied horticulture. His father wrote him saying, “You have chosen a wonderful road for your life, God’s great creation.” Hansen’s road to a higher education was beset with obstacles and at times he dropped out of both high school and college to seek employment to earn the funds necessary to obtain an education, including teaching at the Danish Folk School in Elk Horn, IA. Upon college graduation, Hansen worked for a nursery businesses in Iowa. He wrote advertising and pamphlets on fruit-raising in Scandinavian and in German for the new immigrants settling the Great Plains. Hansen had a lifelong goal of helping the common man. Hansen returned to Iowa Agriculture College and earned his Master’s Degree while working as assistant horticulturist. Here Hansen made connections
23
South Dakota Hall of Fame
that would profoundly change his life. One was his greenhouse assistant and student, George Washington Carver. Another was James “Tama” Wilson, who was head of the Experiment Station. Wilson would eventually become U S Secretary of Agriculture under President McKinley. He also met a young student with whom he fell in love and married, Miss Emma Pammel. Hansen became Professor of Horticulture and Forestry at Dakota Agricultural College (SDSU) in 1895, and led the government experiment station there. When James Wilson became Secretary of Agriculture, he appointed Hansen to be “USDA Plant Explorer Number 1.” Hansen made eight trips overseas in his lifetime and to Asia. He traveled across Eastern Europe, through Ukraine, Russia, Siberia, and on into Asia looking for plants that were cold, heat, and drought tolerant. Hansen was reported to have said “If it can grow in
