Lorenz Lorentzen was born in Schleswig, Denmark, December 2, 1882, and is a son of Ole and Helen Mary (Ahrenkiel) Lorentzen. The father was engaged in the feed business in that country for many years, or until 1921, when he came to California, where he is still living.
In his boyhood and youth Lorenz Lorentzen attended the local schools, completing his education by a course in a business college. Before coming to California in 1904, he was engaged in mercantile pursuits and the printing business in his native land. His first year in California was spent in Salinas, and the next was in San Francisco, where he was employed on the San Francisco Bee. Then returning to Salinas, he entered the employ of the Farmers Mercantile Company, but about a year later he went to Soledad, where he was for two years with the Wahrlich Cornet Company. He then became associated with the A. Wideman Company of Gonzales and has since that time been a resident of that city. In 1914, with Louis Vidoroni, he purchased the hardware and grocery departments of the Wideman Company and the two organized the Gonzales Hardware & Grocery Company. Of this concern Mr. Lorentzen is president and general manager; E. H. Barry, vice president; J. D. Johannsen, secretary and treasurer. In addition to the hardware and grocery trade, the company also does a wholesale grain business, handling about two hundred thousand bushels annually.
Mr. Lorentzen is vice president of the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce and belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. On March 17, 1910, he was married in San Francisco to Miss Alma C. Olson, daughter of Otto Olson, a well known ranch-man at Paraiso Springs, Monterey county.
Source: History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California : cradle of California’s history and romance : dating from the planting of the cross of Christendom upon the shores of Monterey Bay by Fr. Junipero Serra, and those intrepid adventurers who accompanied him, down to the present day. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1925.