BERHARD AHRENDSEN

Birth: 24 Mar 1859 Germany
Death: 29 Aug 1949 Wyoming IA
A native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, he
was born 4 Mar. 1859, and is the son of Lawrence R. and Christina (Peterson) Ahrendsen. After their son had been over here about 4 years the parents came to the United States. The mother has since passed away, but the father is still living and makes his home with his son.
Arriving in the United States in 1882, he made his way almost immediately to the west, where he secured work as a farm hand in Clinton county, Iowa. He remained there about two years and then came to Jones county, continuing to work as an employe for three years, when he believed the time ripe to engage in farming on his own responsibility. In 1887 he rented a tract of land in this county, and there he laid the foundation of the success that has attended his later efforts. For about nineteen years he lived there, and then in 1906 came to Madison township, where he purchased what was known as the A. N. Reade farm, a tract of eighty acres of rich land, well improved. This has been for the last six years his home and has afforded him ample opportunity to prove his skill as an agriculturist.
Mr. Ahrendsen has never married but a sister Louisa has lived with him and graced his home with the comforts that only a woman's presence can give.

SOURCE: ANAMOSA EUREKA, SEPT 1, 1949:
Ben Ahrendsen, 90, who made his home with his sister, Mrs. Louise Petersen, died at Mercy Hospital, Anamosa, Iowa, on Monday
morning.