Carl Gustav Otto Hansen was born on March 16, 1871, in Trondheim, Norway, and emigrated to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1881, first settling in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and later Minneapolis. Largely self-educated, he briefly studied at Augsburg Seminary and worked in printing before beginning a long career in journalism. From 1897 to 1935 he wrote and edited for Minneapolis Daglig Tidende, later working for Skandinaven in Chicago and then serving as editor and educational director for the Sons of Norway magazine. Hansen was also an active musician and choir leader, a founder of several Norwegian-American organizations, and the author of My Minneapolis (1956). He married Amalie Marie Edsten, and they had four children.
