Durham, N. N.  "Spokane and the Inland Empire: History of the City of Spokane
and Spokane County Washington."  Vol. 2.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912.

OTTO HANSEN

	Otto Hansen, a railroad contractor whose business activity has also included
considerable irrigation work, has his offices in the Paulsen building in Spokane
although his operations in construction work call him into various localities.
Careful consideration of the facts indicate that the Teutonic race has
constituted an important element in the upbuilding of the northwest. Of this Mr.
Hansen is a representative. He was born in Holstein, Germany, June 3, 1868, and
is a son of Detlef and Mathilde Hansen. The father was a farmer and once visited
America, making the trip in 1893. It was seven years before this year that Otto
Hansen came to the new world. He had been educated in the public schools of the
fatherland and on crossing the Atlantic to America settled in St. Paul, where he
made his initial step in business circles as a clerk in a general mercantile
store. Thus he was employed for four years, after which he resigned his position
and entered the service of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, going to
Tacoma, where he remained for ten years in the engineering department. He was
engineer of maintenance between Ellensburg and Portland, called the Pacific
division, and remained with the railroad company until 1900, when he resigned to
engage in railroad contract work on his own account. His labors in this
connection have since been of an important character, his patronage steadily
growing until his business interests have assumed large and profitable
proportions. He made his headquarters at Kennewick, Washington, for about three
years and then came to Spokane in 1907. He has also done considerable irrigation
work, taking important contracts of that character. On the 6th of November,
1899, Mr. Hansen was united in marriage to Catherine Anne Reese, a daughter of
Reese J. and Anne Reese, of Tacoma, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have two
children, Reese Detlef and Catherine Mathilde. Mr. Hansen belongs to the Spokane
Club and to the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club. His residence in America now
covers a period of over twenty-five years and he feels that he has never had
occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world, for here he has
found the opportunities which he sought, and by determination and energy has
steadily advanced in business until the extent and importance of his operations
have placed him in a creditable position in business circles.

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in November 2016 by Diane
Wright. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family
mentioned above.