Sacramento County
Biographies
LEVI O. HANSON
LEVI O. HANSON--A rancher with an interesting family history is Levi O. Hanson, born January 1, 1859, in Waldo County, Maine, a son of Levi and Abigail (Bowen) Hanson. Our subject's grandfather, Amos Hanson, was one of the first settlers of Maine. His father, a native of New Hampshire, owned a small farm in Maine. He came to California in 1872, and passed away at the age of seventy-one years. The mother, a native of Maine from old Quaker stock, passed way in Maine at the age of eighty-two years. They had twelve children: Amos, after serving in the Thirteenth Maine Regiment, in the Civil War, left home and was never heard from, his welfare and whereabouts are unknown. Dora and Ezra are deceased; Sarah is still living; Mary is deceased; William, Roscoe, Levi, Abigail, Charles and James are all living; and Almira is deceased.
Lee Hanson, as he is familiarly called by all his friends, attended the public schools in his district until eleven years of age; the balance of his education was obtained in the school of the axe and the plow. At eleven years of age he began to make his own living by working at odd jobs. Determined, however, to educate himself, he sought opportunities for self-instruction and obtained books which he studied in the evenings after his tasks for the day were finished. In 1875 he came to California and secured a position at Rio Vista, Solano County, where he worked for wages for a couple of years. He then leased a farm on Sherman Island, and soon after came to Walnut Grove, and has remained in that vicinity ever since. Eight years ago he purchased his present place, a farm of fifty-one and a half acres, devoted to pears, peaches and plums; and here he built his home. This ranch is situated on Georgiana Slough, Tyler Island. Formerly, he owned another farm; but this he recently sold to Sperry Dye, of Walnut Grove.
On April 15, 1887, Levi O. Hanson was married to Elizabeth Gardiner, of Isleton. She was born near Camden, New Jersey. Their union was blessed by two sons, Marion G. and Leland O. Marion G. Hanson graduated from the Oakland Polytechnic School of Electrical Engineering. He enlisted in the navy and was placed on the revenue cutter "Bear" and made a cruise to Alaska. On his return from this cruise, he was sent to the Long Beach Navy Yard (during the late World War), and while there became assistant superintendent of the Long Beach navy wireless apparatus, taking charge of the inspection of wireless apparatus on board ships. Leland O. Hanson is a graduate of Heald's Business College, and is now assisting his father on the ranch. Mr. Hanson was bereaved of his wife on June 1, 1912. Her death was a great loss both to her family and to the entire community. She was a woman much loved and highly esteemed, whose life was devoted to her family and to the welfare of the community in which she lived. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Isleton.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page
695. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.