Eva and Oscar Hanson

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Eva Isabelle (Brittain) Hanson.

Oscar and Belle (Brittain) Hanson were married on June 3, 1917, and lived their fifty-eight years of marriage in or near Elsie. They both came of pioneer stock and were proud of their heritage. Oscar was the oldest of four children born to Ola and Betsey (Olson) Hanson who came from Sweden in the early 1880's. They came to Perkins County in 1885 to homestead about one and a half miles southeast of Elsie. Oscar was born there on December 27, 1886. He attended school in Elsie, usually only during the winter months when there was no farm work to be done. He tended his trap line on the way to school and since skunks were the main trapees, sometimes he was sent home again. Belle was the daughter of the postmaster, John F Brittain and his wife Theresa (Smith). Belle was born on the family homestead in Lincoln County in Somerset, on January 6, 1895. They moved to Elsie in 1903. She at tended the ten years of schooling offered then went to Curtis for a summer of "normal training". She taught several years in the Miller and Glunz schools then in town. Oscar and Belle lived three and a half miles west of Elsie during their active years. They worked hard raising chickens, hogs and cows to supplement the farm income. The lean 30's saw them economizing with the rest of the dust bowl residents, enjoying simple pleasures like Saturday nights in town, community softball games (played in the area just south of the Methodist Church.) County Fairs (I never knew them to miss one) and the I.O.O.F. and Rebekah Lodges. They both joined the Elsie Methodist Church early and remained faithful members as long as health permitted. Oscar and Belle knew hard times, bad crops, hail, wind, grasshoppers, drought and blizzards, but there were the good times and their good friends. They never wished for more than the "good life" on the Nebraska plains. Oscar died in 1975 and Belle in 1986 having lived long and productive lives. They were the parents of five children; Esther (Mrs. Willard) Harbeson, Pauline (Mrs. LaVern) Johnson. Emil, Dale and Edith (Mrs. Sam) Hunter