Godfred Hanson, who has been actively and successfully identified with the farming interests of Walla Walla county for the past three decades, is the owner of sixty-one acres of productive land on section 1, Ritz township. His birth occurred in Denmark on the 17th of March, 1856, his parents being Hans and Cecil (Rasmussen) Hanson, who were also natives of that country. In the '70s they crossed the Atlantic to the United States and here spent the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of nine children, but only two are now living, the surviving brother of our subject being Fred, who makes his home in Wisconsin.
Godfred Hanson was reared and educated in the land of his nativity, there spending the first seventeen years of his life. In 1873, attracted by the greater opportunities of the new world, he emigrated to the United States and took up his abode in Wisconsin, where he remained for fourteen years. On the expiration of that period, in 1887, he made his way westward to Washington, settling in Walla Walla county and purchasing a farm of sixty-one acres in Ritz township which he has operated continuously to the present time, covering a period of three decades. He erected substantial and commodious buildings on the property and now has a well improved farm on which he makes a specialty of the raising of alfalfa. His undertakings as an agriculturist have been attended with well merited success, so that he has long been numbered among the prosperous and representative citizens of his community.
In 1888 Mr. Hanson was united in marriage to Miss Anna Jensen, a native of Denmark, by whom he had four children, namely: Cecelia, Howard and Mildred, all at home; and Fred, who is deceased.
In politics Mr. Hanson is a stalwart democrat and at present he is ably serving as school director and clerk. He was reared in the Lutheran faith and still adheres to the teachings of that church. He is indeed a self-made man and deserves all the praise that term implies, for the success which he now enjoys is attributable entirely to his industry, energy and perseverance.
WILLIAM E. BRUCE.
William E. Bruce, who is devoting his time to farming on section 25, township 9 north, range 37 east, is a native son of Washington as his birth occurred in Columbia county, September 18, 1880. His father was James W. Bruce, and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Addie Harmon, was a native of Oregon, but in 1857 came to Walla Walla county. James W. Bruce engaged in farming in this county for many years and met with gratifying success in that connection.
William E. Bruce, who is one of a family of four children, all of whom survive, was reared in Walla Walla county and began his education in the public schools, continuing his studies in Pullman College. He remained at home, giving his father the benefit of his labor until he attained his majority, when he began operating three hundred and twenty acres of wheat land and three hundred and seventy acres of pasture land. He is still farming those tracts and derives a gratifying income from both his wheat raising and his stock raising.
In 1914 Mr. Bruce was married to Miss Clarabel Weatherford, of Dayton, a daughter of Hon. F. M. Weatherford, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Bruce has never been active in public or political affairs. He holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and fraternally is identified with Lodge No. 16, A. F. & A. M., at Waitsburg and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Waitsburg. These connections indicate the high standards which have governed his life and have gained him the respect of all who know him. As a farmer he is progressive and businesslike, as a citizen he manifests a commendable public spirit and in the private relations of life he is scrupulous in his recognition of the rights of others.