From the ragged coast of Norway to the mountains of Colorado is a wide sweep in longitude and conditions, and might well suggest unfitness in a person born and reared on the one for agreeable and useful life in the other. That the suggestion is without force is proven by the career of Dr. Knud Hanson, one of the most prominent physicians of Grand Junction, which is an impressive illustration of the fact that to a man of real force and capacity circumstances and conditions are only incidents to be commanded to service and are not allowed to dominate life or lessen active usefulness. The Doctor was born in the old city of Bergen, Norway, on July 11, 1874, and is the son of Peter and Bertha (Olson) Hanson, natives of that country, where the mother died in 1898 and the father is still living, now retired from active pursuits after a long, honorable and successful career as a wholesale grocer. Their offspring numbered fourteen, of whom six are living, the Doctor being the thirteenth born. He grew to the age of sixteen in his native land and there received a common-school education, being graduated from the high school in 1890. He then came to the United States and located at Sauk Center, Minnesota, where he clerked in a drug store three years. In the fall of 1894 he entered Rush Medical College at Chicago, and after passing three years there in diligent study of medicine and surgery, was obliged to leave on account of his health. He came at once to Colorado, and in 1898 was graduated from the University of Denver with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For a year he was house physician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver, and in the fall of 1899 moved to Grand Junction, where he has built up a large and lucrative practice in medicine and surgery, giving attention especially to the latter branch of his profession and achieving unusual success and acquiring celebrity for skill in it. He is a member of the county and state medical societies, and gives to their proceedings close attention as a learner, and the results of his study, experience and observation as a contributor. He is official physician to the Indian school located at Grand Junction and in this position has rendered very efficient and satisfactory service. He has also been coroner two years. In fraternal relations he is an interested member of the order of Elks, in which he is a wise and helpful counselor in the business of his lodge and an inspiration in its social life.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.