His mother, widowed since 1872, took the family to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where her parents and siblings had previously settled.

[3] A lifelong musician, Hansen sang with and directed male choruses or church choirs from the age of sixteen until impaired hearing forced him to give up the activity.

[2] The Sons of Norway published a songbook in 1926 that provided a comprehensive collection of Norwegian songs for community singing by its membership.

Since its initial publication, the bilingual Sons of Norway songbook has gone through numerous printings and been reissued in paperback and digital formats.

He wrote, for instance, of Ole Bull's 1856 visit to Minneapolis and of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's 1880-1881 Midwestern lecture tour.

Upon his arrival in Minneapolis, Hansen encountered the Norwegian authors Kristofer Janson and Knut Hamsun, who lived for a time in the city, and the Norwegian-American artists Jacob Fjelde and Herbjørn Gausta.