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Time To Retire: Providing For Retirement On A Danish Farm In 1863, J.R. Christianson

The Bridge

Peder S0rensen and Ane Mette were ready to retire, but the year was 1863, and the famous Danish welfare state was far in the future. So what did they do? It was a problem faced by the families of many Danish immigrants. When he was young, Peder S0rensen had come to the village of Lindeballe and bought a piece of land from the rich widow in Lindeballegaard. That was thirty-seven years ago. He and his first wife, Maren Sofie, built their farm on that piece of land, and they called it L0kkegaard.1 They had no children.