Sacramento County
Biographies
RASMUS CARSTENSEN
RASMUS CARSTENSEN.—A
controller of one of the important and very serviceable industries in Sacramento
is Rasmus Carstensen, the
owner of the well-organized Crystal Ice Company, doing business at 1620
R Street in that city. He it is who has
developed to the highest degree of efficiency one of the most necessary lines
of local trade, and by his wise foresight and broad, common-sense views as to
what one organization in society owes to another, has contributed much to the
comfort and welfare of thousands of persons bearing the burden and the heat of
the day. He was born in Germany
on July 29, 1867, the son of Hans and Annie (Yoerk) Carstensen, and in that country long famous for its schools
laid the foundation of a knowledge and an experience
he has often found extremely useful. When only fifteen years of age, he
came out to Clinton, Iowa, and there worked on a farm; and having little by
little made steady headway, he moved on further
westward, working on ranches in San Joaquin and Sacramento Counties; later he
become (sic) a motorman, then conductor, on the Howard Street Railway in San
Francisco, and in 1892 came to Sacramento, where he engaged in the liquor
trade, at the corner of Fifth and K Streets.
In
1911 Mr. Carstensen established the ice business of
which he is at present the owner and head, commencing at Oak
Park with a twenty-ton plant; and now he has a
fifty-ton plant there. In 1921 he removed to 1620
R Street, and built his modern ice and
cold-storage building, 120 by 160 feet in size, and two stories in height; and
in doing so he has arranged for a possible additional two stories of cold
storage. He employs twenty-five men, and he is constantly adding to his
plant; and he has come to ship his ice product all over this section of the
state. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Merchants’
Association; is public-spirited and always interested in civic affairs.
Mr.
Carstensen married Miss Annie Stewart, in 1898, the
ceremony taking place at San Francisco;
she is now deceased. In 1915 he was united to Miss Marie Jensen, his
second marriage occurring at San Mateo. August
is a son by his first marriage, and he helps his father. Mr. Carstensen is a thirty-second-degree Mason, belonging to
the Scottish Rite, and is a Shriner;
and he also belongs to the Odd Fellows, and is a life member of the Eagles.
Transcribed 5-17-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 809. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.