My Genealogy Hound

MICHAEL C. BANG, farmer of Cosmo township, Kearney county, was born in Denmark, October 5, 1849, and was reared on the home farm until nineteen years old, when he left his home and worked out as a farm hand for two and a half years. In October, 1872, he departed from his native shore and soon found himself in Quebec, Canada. The same year he came to the United States and worked in the great canal at Sault Ste Marie, Mich., till the spring following, when he went to the copper mines of Lake Superior, where he worked for fourteen months; he then went to Kendall county, Ill., where he worked for monthly wages until 1878, when he married and lived on a rented farm until January, 1880, when he came to Nebraska and bought a claim and located his homestead in the southwest quarter of section 18, township 5, range 14, Kearney county. The place contained a dugout, a stable and a well, and twenty-five acres of the land were broken. He lived in the dugout at first, but soon built a sod house, in which he lived until 1884, when he erected a fine frame house, in which he now resides. When he came here he had a small amount of money, which he paid out for his land. He had brought some farming implements from Illinois, and had four head of horses. After the first year he was very successful with his crops and now has 115 acres under cultivation; he has groves, orchards, and fine livestock, has everything in good shape, and is looked upon as being one of the best farmers in his township.

Mr. Bang married Mary Anderson, daughter of Andrew C. Nelson, from Denmark, and this union has been blessed with seven children, viz. — Andrew C., Nora M., Kristena E., Ingeborg A., James E., Emma Johanna and Saddie C. Since coming to Nebraska Mr. Bang has served two terms as school treasurer — six years; he was justice of the peace two terms and has served three terms as county supervisor. He was nominated at a recent democratic convention for sheriff of the county, and came very near being elected, receiving a flattering vote for the republicans, and carrying his own township with a heavy majority, receiving every vote but eleven, as well as carrying the township of his opponent. He and his family belong to the Danish Free Lutheran church.

Kristen Bang, the father of our subject, was a carpenter by trade, but passed the best part of his life on the farm where he died in 1878, at the age of seventy-one years. His first wife, the mother of Michael Bang, bore the maiden name of Dorthea Jensen, and became the mother of eight children, four of whom were reared to maturity. By a second marriage Kristen Bang had born to him ten children. A year after our subject reached America he was followed by a brother, who is also now living in Kearney county, Nebr.