Niels H. Lauridson, who is a prominent farmer and leading citizen residing on the Placerville road four miles east of Mills, where he owns a ranch of four hundred and sixty acres devoted to grain farming, is a member of the board of directors of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company of Sacramento county, of which company he was one of the organizers. He deserves to rank among the old-time California residents, since he came to Sacramento county in 1869, and since that year has identified himself very closely with the social life and various activities of his community. He has resided on his present homestead since 1887, although he began conducting it as a farm in 1883. Before he applied his energies almost exclusively to agricultural affairs he followed the trade of carpenter in the county, and was accounted a most excellent workman in that craft, as he has in fact been exemplary in all other phases of citizenship and activity.

A native of the kingdom of Denmark, Mr. Lauridson was born January 29, 1846, and reared to man's estate in his native country, where he was advantaged by receiving a fair education as a basis for practical life. In 1868, when twenty-two years old, he took passage on board a steamer at Hamburg, and on his arrival in New York city some eleven days later went out to Polk county, Wisconsin, whence a short time later he came out to California. He has been a leading citizen of Sacramento county ever since his arrival, and one year served as road commissioner of the district in which he resides, under appointment by Governor Budd. he was one of the organizers and is now a director in the Sacramento Rochdale Company, which is an incorporated mercantile establishment in Sacramento.

Mr. Lauridson married for his first wife Miss Emma Doan, of Sacramento. On November 21, 1889, he married for his present wife Miss Martha Criswell, who was born in Santa Clara county, this state, February 22, 1857. Mrs. Lauridson is a daughter of Archibald and Elizabeth (Kilgore) Criswell. Her mother came across the plains with her parents in 1852, and for a brief period before she was married resided in Sacramento county, her marriage occurring in Santa Clara county; she passed most of her subsequent years in Sacramento county, dying only a few years ago. The journey of the Kilgore family across the plains from Ohio was made with ox teams. Mrs. Lauridson has the following named sister and brothers: Alice A., who is the wife of William Bryan, of Sacramento county; William H., in Sacramento county; and George A., of Sacramento city.

Mr. and Mrs. Lauridson are among the most active members of the American River Grange No. 172, of which he has served as master, and she has filled various offices therein. He is also a member of Pomona Grange in Sacramento county, and for many years both of them have been actively interested in grange work. Mr. Lauridson affiliates with Industrial Lodge No. 157, I. O. O. F., at Sacramento. Mrs. Lauridson is a member of the social and literary organization known as the Thursday Club, at Fair Oaks.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine