Some things just seem to run in families, like red hair or singing ability or brown eyes.

Thursday, March 21, 2002

Some things just seem to run in families, like red hair or singing ability or brown eyes. For the Hemmingsens of Alden, driving school busses and delivering freight runs in the family.

Hemmingsen’s Transfer, which is celebrating 100 years of business this year, has been handling bus service for the Alden-Conger schools since the early 1920s. They bought their first motorized school bus in 1929. The company started out as a feed barn and freight delivery company, and then slowly began hauling anything from livestock for area farmers to garbage for the community of Alden to dry goods for area merchants.

The tasks and the equipment have both changed a lot since those early years, but the name reflects the constant ownership of the company by members of the Hemmingsen family.

The current owners are cousins Scott and Dave Hemmingsen, great-grandsons of company founder Louie Hemmingsen. Louie started the business a few years after immigrating to the United States from Denmark. He passed it on to his sons Wallace and Raymond, who then passed it on to their sons, Bernard and Dale.

A sign of the Danish heritage of the Hemmingsen clan is the Danish flag flying outside the business. It’s been there for at least 10 years, said Scott. The flag has sometimes resulted in conversations with visitors from Denmark, who are surprised to find their country’s colors flying so far from home, he said.

Scott has always been involved with the business, and handles most of the paperwork and makes the daily runs to the Twin Cities to pick up freight for delivery in the area. Dave worked in Freeborn for a while before coming back home to work with his cousin. He is responsible for the school bus side of the business. Besides Dave and Scott, the company employs eight part-time bus drivers.

Plans are already being made for a June birthday party to celebrate the centennial, with a meal and entertainment provided for customers and other guests of the company. Invitations will be sent out later this spring, and plenty of them.

&uot;Everybody who wants an invitation will probably get one,&uot; said Scott Hemmingsen. As the party gets closer, anyone who thinks they’ve been overlooked should contact him.

As to whether the next generation of Hemmingsens are going to become part of the family business, only time will tell, both men say. Their kids are still pretty young, and the business of freight delivery in the area and school bus driving continue to become more complicated with each passing year. While both are satisfied with how things are, they say they struggle to stay competitive as the small towns they serve get smaller and smaller.

&uot;If we get to 125 years, then we’ll see,&uot; said Scott.