Sacramento County
Biographies
MARTIN KOFOD
MARTIN KOFOD.--An enterprising, industrious and thrifty rancher, whose success reflects creditably upon the community in which he lives, as well as upon himself, is Martin Kofod, a native of Bornholm, Denmark, where he was born on April 19, 1867, the son of Hans Kofod Hansen, a farmer and a miller, who is still living at the ripe old age of eighty-six. He married Miss Petrea Larsen, who died when our subject was a lad. The other children in the family are Maria, Hans Peter, and Christian, all older, and Petrea, the youngest. Mr. Larsen married a second time, taking Miss Krak for his bride; and they had four children, Janus, Hansina, Carl and Anna.
Martin Kofod attended the district schools in Denmark, and when fifteen years old, he started to learn the machinist trade. After following that awhile, he learned milling, and followed that, also. In 1888, he came out to San Francisco, and worked for nine or ten years in the grist mills there; and then went into the baking business for himself, and was nicely established when the great fire of 1906, following the earthquake, burned him out. He then came inland to Sherman Island, and bought fifty-three and one-half acres there, devoted to the growing of beans, in part, but mostly alfalfa, and also to a dairy. He also has ten acres of asparagus. He attends properly to his business, but he takes a real keen interest in public affairs and all that pertains to the community in which he lives and prospers. Having taken out his citizenship papers at San Francisco in 1895, Mr. Kofod marches with the Republicans, and thus works for better and more stable government.
At San Francisco, on the 25th of February, 1900, Mr. Kofod was married to Miss Elianna Brondberg, a native of Sterling, Ill., and the daughter of Peter and Genevieve (Hansen) Brondberg. Her father came to California when Elianna was five years old, and here followed his trade, that of a cooper, and he in time settled at Napa, where he had a cooper shop. He is still living on his ranch, and spends his time developing his flocks of choice squabs. His good wife died when she was fifty-six, but it has been his privilege to see his seventy-fifth year. There were three daughters in this interesting family, Hilda and Frances, both of Burlingame, being the younger sisters of Mrs. Kofod, who attended the San Francisco and Napa schools. Three children have blessed Mr. and Mrs. Kofod, and they bear the attractive names of Thor Elias, Elianna and Andrea; and all graduated from the Rio Vista high school. Mr. Kofod is a member of the Danish Brotherhood of America.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 953.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.