Louis Christiansen

LOUIS CHRISTIANSEN. Greater responsibilities rest upon no man than those who at the present time have the direction and care of public institutions and public education. Kansas has many classical as well as efficient educators, and one of them is Louis Christiansen, county superintendent of schools of Ellis County.

Mr. Christiansen has thoroughly imbibed the spirit and ideals of Western Kansas and has been in school work for many years. He was born on the Island of Moen, Denmark, but was brought to Kansas as a small child. His father, N. J. Christiansen, was born in the same part of Denmark in 1842. The grandfather, Christian Andersen, spent all his life in Denmark as a farmer, and was the son of a native Norwegian. N. J. Christiansen grew up and married in Denmark and in 1877 brought his family to the United States and settled in Ellis County, Kansas. He homesteaded 160 acres, but the following two years he spent in Salina, Kansas. In the spring of 1880 he returned to his claim and industriously worked it and prospered as a farmer until his death at Ellis in 1914. He was a republican voter and a member of the Lutheran Church. He married Maren Kirstine Jensdatter, who was born on the Island of Moen in 1887 and is still living on the home farm in Ellis County. Louis is the oldest of her three children. Peter is a farmer in Smoky Hill Township, Ellis County, and Albert lives with his mother in the same township.

Louis Christiansen attended the rural schools of Ellis County and in 1903 graduated in the commercial course from the Salina Normal University. Much of his early life was spent on his father's farm, and he has more than a practical knowledge of agricultural conditions, which has proved valuable to him as a teacher and educator. He was engaged in school teaching in Ellis County until 1908, which year he graduated from the Fort Hays Normal School and received a one year's teacher's certificate but in 1910 was granted a life certificate.

Mr. Christiansen was elected county superintendent of schools in 1914, and was re-elected in 1916 and 1918, in the latter year without opposition. The measure of his responsibilities is found in the fifty-two schools under his supervision, a staff of 108 teachers, and an enrollment of scholars to the number of 2,200.

Mr. Christiansen has been active in all matters affecting education, has served several times as president of the County Teachers' Association, is now president of the Golden Belt Teachers' Association and is a member of the Kansas State Teachers' Association. He is also a member of the Kansas State Historical Society and the National Geographic Society. In politics he is a republican, a member of the Lutheran Church and is affiliated with Ellis Lodge of Masons. He owns farming land in Ellis and Trego counties.