Andrew Janus Hansen Autobiography, undated

Andrew Janus Hansen, 1852-1932. He grew from orphan, indentured servant, and outcast (illegitmate birth and "one of those Mormons," in Denmark) to business man and honored member of his community. Among his occupations he was an expert teamster, a water master, a surveyor, a farmer and horticulturist, having raised some of the choicest fruits in the land, a sawyer and engineer, a general saw mill man, a dairyman, a steam laundry man, a builder and a cabinet maker. He was President of the East Fork Irrigation Company, President of the Village of Tropic and a mamber of the Utah State Legislature. he was a Captain of the First Infantry, National Guard, Utah, a POlice Judge in the City of Roxburg for 3 years and at the age of 70 was elected Probate Judge, Mdison County, Idaho. he was elected to this position six times. "Father of a nation," twenty-nine children; husband to four wives: Bengta Anderson (March 4, 1872), Caroline Pedersen (July 25, 1989), Else Marie Christensen (April 28, 1886), and Marie Jensen Frost (November 27, 1887). Bengta Anderson, who died in 1906, was the only one to pre-decease him.

In the month of August, 1869 (age 17) he arrived in Ogden, Utah, from Holstebro, Denmark. He was penniless, confused and feeling quite lost. But he had "arrived at Zion." The future bishop, patriarch, and judge had found a "home." He settled in Big Cottonwood, Utah, for 16 years, lived in Southern Utah for 19 years and moved to Idaho in 1905, settling first in Sugar City, then Salem and finally Rexburg. he served a mission for the Church in Nebraska in 1878 and another in Denmark in 1882. Some of his offices in the Church included being an Elder, a Seventy, a High Priest, Bishop's Counselor, High Counselor of a Stake, Presiding Elder, Bishop of the Tropic Ward, and as a Patriarch. In his lifetime Judge Hansen built, "with his own hands," thirty homes for himself and family. he named and was a founder of Tropic, Utah. He resisted efforts to name the town after him. He did what few men of his era and estate ever accomplished - he wrote his own biography, for his family "and as an inspiration to posterity." He died November 4, 1932 at Rexburg, Idaho.