Notizen zu Thielsen Hans:
Hans Thielsen Biographical Information:
Born June 11, 1814--April 25, 1896. Civil engineer, railroad builder, banker was born at Flensburg, Denmark, [now N.Germany] died in Portland, Oregon, the son of Hans Jens Bune and Anna Katherine Hansen Thielsen. He was educated in the school and university at Flensburg, and specialized in mathematics in preparation for a career as civil engineer [though another source sites his predecessors as seamen and farmers].
In 1837 he came to America, constructed the Michigan Central and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads, 1837-1867. He met Ben Holladay (qv) in Omaha in 1869, who engaged his services to develop his Oregon railroads. He began work in 1870, and continued with Henry Villard (qv) when Holliday went broke building the Oregon & California R.R..
He soon proved a highly efficient engineer, particularly on mountain grades and his good work gave him a lasting place in Oregon history. Named for him is Mount Thielsen (alt.9,173' ) in the high Cascades.
After fifty years in railroad construction work, he retired to less strenuous occupations and established a home in Portland, where he was active in financial and industrial life. He was married in 1844 to Ellen Westren [from Barnstable, England] at Jackson, Michigan; they had three sons. (MOGN, 350; HHO, 653.) from Dictionary of Oregon History, ed. H.M. Corning. 1956. Binford and Mort Publishers, Portland, Oregon.

According to his grand daughter, Ellen Westren Thielsen DeWitt (deceased, of Mehema and Salem, Oregon), Hans Thielsen is credited with engineering the original railroad through the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side. At the time, this was regarded a celebrated feat of engineering in the Gorge's rugged terrain and helped complete railroad access to Portland and the Willamette Valley.

According to a privately published collection of family letters of Charles Elliott Perkins of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, Thielsen was chief engineer for the B & M. in the 1860's. He is discussed by Perkins (age c.23) in a letter dated 2/13/1864 as being "one of those man who smile on all the world." Thielsen was more spiritually inclined rather than having a good business sense: " Thielsen is a man who in business lets himself be hoodwinked constantly...." Perkins writes, "We are very good friends and get on excellently." Perkins reports that they often read and discussed Darwin and Swedenborg, the latter being of specific interest to Thielsen. These letters show that Mr. and Mrs. Thielsen shared many social activities with Perkins during the mid-1860's when both families lived in Burlington, Iowa and worked to build the railroad westward.

(Quelle: http://www.classfolios.com/mtthielsen/).

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Forscher: © /http://www.Adelby.com/ Helmut Martensen, 24943 Flensburg; EMail: Martensen@t-online.de