HANS PEDER CORNELIUS

Hans Peder Cornelius, a Sutter Township farmer, was born in Zealand, Denmark, February 20, 1846, son of Rasmus and Chirsten Cornelius. Rasmus died in November, 1888, and Chirsten is still living in the old country. They brought up six children, four of whom are now living: Hans, Frederick (a merchant in Rengsted, Zealand), Anna, Sophia, in Copenhagen, and Marion Christina, in Sacramento. Mr. Cornelius remained with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, obtaining a good education and learning the carpenter’s trade, and also working some in the woolen mills where his father was superintendent. He was then in the Government service six months; next he went to Greenland, where he was employed in making shafts and other equipments for mining camps for one summer. October 15, 1869, he left for the United States and landed at Philadelphia December 4, unable to speak a word of English. Accordingly he found it difficult to obtain employment. He went through New York State and Michigan to Chicago, where he obtained a situation, through an employment agency, away down in the State of Mississippi, sixty miles below Memphis, at Friar’s Point, on the bank of the Mississippi River. He was there employed, with interruptions, for five years, running a saw-mill there four years. Life in this depressing climate was to him quite a contrast to “Greenland’s icy mountains,” and he found it to be advantageous to his health and his spirits to drift northward. During this period he was married, in May, 1871, in Chicago, to Anna Tromena Johnson. He was a carpenter in Chicago, a part of the time in the shops of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company. He came to California in 1875, locating in Sacramento and engaging for the railroad. A year afterward a siege of sickness compelled him to give up his place there. After his recovery he entered upon his present place, where he has since resided; it contains ninety acres, and is located on the upper Stockton road three and a half miles from the city limits. He started in here raising hay and grain, but for the last three or four years he has turned his attention more to fruit-raising. His wife died January 3, 1886, the mother of four children, as follows: Lizzie, born July 29, 1873: Mary, November 24, 1876: Robert, January 25, 1879; and Johnnie, March 9, 1882. Mr. Cornelius married Mrs. Margaret Sparrow of this county.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 478-479. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.