Andreas and Mathilda Oefstedal and Family
Andreas Oefstedal and (Dinah) Mathilda Bronson/Mathilda Markuson
Andreas was the sixth child of Anders and Agate and the fourth to live to adulthood. He used a spelling of the last name that was slightly different from all his siblings – using an “e” after the “O” in Oefstedal. Also, with his name being Andreas, and his initials being A. A., this caused confusion in a few early records with his brother Anders, who also went by Andrew and used the initials A. A. At least one record seems to confuse Andreas and Anders by first name.
Andreas first marriage ended in tragedy. His wife Dinah Matilde Bronson and their three young boys all died young. Andreas married Dinah Matilde (born May 25, 1862) in March 1881 in Waupun, Wisconsin, where she had lived with her Norwegian immigrant parents Sven and Anna. She was listed in census records as Matilde, and died on August 24, 1886 in Garfield Township in Polk County, Minnesota. Their three children were: 1) Anders Carl Theodor, born February 1, 1882 in Garfield Township, Polk County, and died on July 2, 1886 in Garfield Township; 2) Sigwald Adolph, born April 27, 1884 and died on September 26, 1884; and 3) Albert Nikolai, born February 15, 1886 in Garfield Township, and died September 4, 1886 – surviving his mother by just over a week. Andreas lost his wife and two of his three surviving children within a matter of weeks. Matilde and the children are all buried in Little Norway Lutheran Cemetery in Fertile, Garfield Township, Polk County, Minnesota.
Andreas remarried to Matilde Markuson, a sister of Rev. John Ofstedahl’s wife, on January 3, 1888 in Polk County (Matilde was born on January 20, 1866 in Goodhue County, Minnesota and died on October 17, 1959, probably in Chicago). They had seven children: 1) Theodore N., born January 10, 1889 in Garfield Township, Polk County, Minnesota and died in December 1963, appears to have never married; 2) Agatha Matilde (went by Mathilde), born December 26, 1890 in Fertile, Minnesota, died May 28, 1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma; married in Cook County, Illinois on August 20, 1919 to Gustav Anders Larson, born October 16, 1894 in Orum, Nebraska, and died November 17, 1948 in Winnebago, Illinois, four children; 3) Clarence Alvin, born January 3, 1893 in Moorhead, Minnesota, died May 6, 1956, married Ruth Anderson, appears to have had no children; 4) Ella Charlotte, born April 16, 1895 in Minnesota, died June 1969 in Park Ridge, Illinois, appears to have never married; 5) Rudolph Anders, born March 19, 1897, born Moorhead, Minnesota, died June 29, 1959 in Seattle, Washington, married on June 4, 1924, Edith Evangeline Estrem, born September 22, 1896 in Minnesota, and died on September 3, 1984 in Multnomah, Oregon, six children; 6) Eunice, born January 20, 1900 in Illinois, and died April 2, 1978 in Park Ridge, Illinois, married John Tauchen, no known children; and 7) Eva Valborg, born on January 13, 1902 in Fertile, Minnesota and died on September 9, 2000, in 1929 married Reuben Teslow, who was born July 7, 1899 in Hayward, Minnesota and died on January 9, 1965 in Seattle, Washington, three children. Rudolph was a Lutheran minister and his sister Eva married a minister.
Andreas moved regularly during his pastoral career – attending Luther College in Decorah, Iowa from 1874 to 1878, attending Luther Seminary in Madison, Wisconsin from 1878 through 1881; pastoring in Fertile, Minnesota and many surrounding communities from 1881 to 1892; in Moorhead, Minnesota 1892-1897; Chicago, Illinois 1897-1900; back to Fertile, Minnesota, 1900-1910; back to Chicago 1912-1925; in Bend, Oregon, 1926-1928 – and then back to Chicago, where he died in 1930. Mathilda outlived him by twenty-nine years, and appears to have lived in Chicago during that period.
During this time, Andreas was not just a pastor, but a leader in many related organizations. He served on the boards of St. Olaf College and Concordia College and was the rector of Deaconess Hospital in Chicago, as well as serving on the board of many charities. He served as editor of “Diakonissen” (which translates to “Deaconess”).
The children of Andreas and his brother, my great-grandfather John, were double cousins because two sisters married two brothers – and it was the one Ofstedahl family line that stayed in touch with my family’s line, in part because of the Markuson family tie. Some copies of photos in this section came from Jay Jerde – a researcher on the Markuson family side, who has researched the different Markuson siblings, and included work on Andreas and Matilda in that research. The Markuson family history done in the early 1960’s by Albert Markuson – younger brother of Matilda and Anna – included Andreas’ family up to that time.
I recall a story from my childhood that Rudolph visited my grandfather Carl unannounced in California and my grandmother was not happy that they had not unpacked in their new house as he came by. So the branches remained in contact.
Of the three Ofstedal brothers who became ministers, Andreas was the one who lived a full life – and therefore spent almost fifty years in church activities, which took him to a number of churches and service on boards for different church organizations. Near the beginning of his career, he was instrumental in the founding of six different churches in the Polk County, Minnesota area. One was the Faaberg congregation just into Norman County from Polk County, which was the church of his brother Simon and his parents Anders and Agate. Anders is shown buried in the Faaberg church cemetery, as are Simon and members of his family.
I have been able to gather a number of photos, articles, and records for Andreas and his family members, which follow and do a good job telling the story of their lives.
Andreas' biography and photo from the 1913 book of Norwegian-American pastors. This was the first of these volumes, and was in Norwegian. The photo matches a fuller version of the photo shown later that came from Markuson researcher Jay Jerde. This biography contains a few errors. Mathilde Markuson is listed as Mortenson. Mathilde Bronson is listed as Bronsa. And date of his first marriage and death of his first wife, and the marriage of his second wife – are all in error, and are ten years after the actual dates of those events. I will show Andreas’ entries in three of these volumes, because each has a different photo, and adds details to the biography.
The biography of Rev. Andreas Oefstedal from the Voss Immigrant book is at right. In Norwegian, this biography seems to mirror the first pastor book - including the incorrect dates mentioned.
Andreas' photo and biography from the 1927 Norwegian-American pastor directory is at left. It is a different photo from the previous one – and the dates that were in error in the 1913 directory were corrected. However, the year of the photograph is listed as 1897 - the same year listed for the photograph sown in 1913 - and it is likely that this photograph was taken nearer to 1927.
Andreas' photo and biography from the 1952 Norwegian-American pastor directory is at right - published over twenty years after Andreas death. This is a complete biography of his life - and contains a third different photo from the previous two pastor directories.
This biography of Andreas was, as shown at left, in the Minnesota Posten of March 18, 1971. No idea why they chose to post this biography then. Not sure what the source was, but it could have been from the Rowberg file.
Andreas’ biographies above, list his attendance at Luther College from 1874 to 1878 – and then his attendance at Luther Seminary from 1878 to 1881. This matches the 1880 census entry below showing Andreas in Madison, Wisconsin in 1880. From the “History of the Norwegian People in America”, published in 1925, and authored by Olaf Morgan Norlie (also known as O. M. Norlie), a professor at Luther College – I have included below the history of both Luther College and Luther Seminary. This will give some context to Andreas’ years in both institutions.
These histories are important as well, because the location of Luther Seminary changed in 1889 – and it places Andreas there in the Madison, Wisconsin years – and matches the 1880 census entry. Andreas’ brother Nils was at both locations at roughly the same time. However, Andreas was ordained in 1881 and moved immediately to a pastorate, and Nils – who started Luther Seminary in 1880, remained there until 1883. This probably also highlights the connection between the two at the time, which is demonstrated below as Nils was a witness at Andreas’ 1881 wedding.
At right is the Biography of Andreas Oefstedal from the 1902 "Compendium of History and Biography of Northern Minnesota". It is stated that he lived in a house that was a dug out, and then a log house thatched with bark. This article was published just before Andreas and Matilda had their seventh child together, Eva. This is a good narrative biography of Andreas until the year of publication in 1902.
Below is one of the first post-immigration records for Andreas Oefstedal - showing him as "at school" (at Luther Seminary) in Madison, Wisconsin in 1880 - the year before he married the first time and got his first call.
Above is a marriage entry from the Waupun (Wisconsin) Church book, in Norwegian, showing that Andreas Anderson Ofstedahl, age 25, married Dinah Mathilde Bronson, age 18, married on March 23, 1881. Andreas is shown as the son of Anders Simonson and Agatha Anderson. Dinah is shown as the daughter of Sven Bronson and Anna Larson. Nils Ofstedahl is listed, likely one of the witnesses. Sven Bronson, Matilde are shown in Waupun in the 1880 census - so it is likely that they were married here because that is where Matilde’s family lived.
Above is an excerpt from he 1885 Minnesota state census for Garfield Township, Polk County. Andreas on the right page, with his first wife and one young child - the year before his wife and this child and a new child died. Most of the entries on these two pages are people of Norwegian ancestry.
In 1995 I visited the Polk County (MN) Clerk's office, and hand-copied various records. Above are the three hand-copied birth records for Andreas' three sons by his first wife. Parents were born in Wisconsin and Norway. Andreas was listed differently as “minister”, “Clergyman”, and “minister of the gospel”. All three were born in Garfield Township. And I suspect the first born was “Anders”, and not what is written above. In case the actual books are placed online at some point – the book and page are listed at the left.
In the same 1995 visit, I copied from the Index to Death Records, shown above. The three Oefstedal's listed are the first and third of his sons, and his wife. For some reason, Sigwald Adolph is not here. Looking at the actual record in 1995, it states that Dinah Mathilda Oefstedal died of “consumption”.
The grave stone for Dinah Mathilde Oefstedal, in Little Norway Cemetery in Polk County, Minnesota - is shown at right. There are graves for the three young sons of Andreas and Dinah Mathilde in the same cemetery. The burial records for Dinah Mathilde and the three young Oefstedal sons, from the Little Norway church records, are shown below.
The Congregations Andreas Helped Found in the Polk and Norman County Region in Minnesota . . . .
In the compendium of biography and history for Northern Minnesota 1902 biography of Andreas above, it is noted that Andreas was called to the Little Norway congregation in Polk County, and while there he started four more congregations in his first year of missionary work in that area. Those four congregations were Faaberg, Sundal, Vaernes, and Our Savior (savior translates to Frelser, which is shown below). Two were in Norman County, and two in Polk County. He was in this region from 1881 to 1892, and after his first year there, he was the pastor in at least one more congregation. The section on each in the 1917 compendium of Norwegian-American Lutheran churches are shown below. The years of Andreas’ service is listed within the section on each church.
The Little Norway Church section is shown above, which is listed in the 1902 Northern Minnesota history as the church that first brought Andreas to the region. The excerpt above lists Rev. Oefstedal as the pastor from 1881 through 1898. He was in Clay County from 1892 to 1897, so it is possible he still was pastor remotely. Little Norway is where his children were baptized, and where his first wife and first three children are buried in the church cemetery. The excerpt above shows two photographs indicating the first church was constructed in 1881 and a newer second church was constructed in 1895 - when, according to the information above, Andreas was still pastor.
In 1891, a newspaper reference states that Rev. John Ofstedahl rushed to Fertile due to the death of a child (he was pastor in Grafton, North Dakota at the time) - and that son is buried in Little Norway Cemetery, the grave stone and news article are shown in the John Ofstedahl web page on this site. Given that Andreas had married the sister of John’s wife just a few years before, the families were probably closely connected.
At right is from the church book of the Little Norway church. It shows that Past. A. Oefstedal was there from June 3, 1881 until October 1892. Later on the same page it shows he returned November 8, 1900 and stayed until December 31, 1909.
Andreas Oefstedal had two stints at the Little Norway Church. He returned and served as pastor a second time - as shown in the church history above - from 1900 to 1909. As shown in the page about Anna Ofstedal (Gronvold) on this website - Anna married Matthias Gronvold. The Gronvold family lived in the Fertile area, and I obtained a Gronvold family history that tells a little about Matthias and Anna, but is about all the greater Gronvold family. Included in that history was the excerpt above. A Gronvold family member (a cousin to Mathias, I believe) was married by Rev. Oefstedal in 1908 at the Little Norway church. His wife was baptized, and confirmed also by Andreas - and son Rudolph is mentioned. It is an indication of the closeness of the Oefstedal family to the parishioners of the Little Norway Church.
From the 1917 Norwegian-American Lutheran Church directory is the item at left. It appears that part of the Little Norway Congregation split off during Andreas’ tenure to form a second congregation - the Evanger Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. The excerpt indicates that they were part of the Little Norway congregation from 1880 to 1890, the ten years prior to the split. Interestingly, Evanger was the Norwegian town nearest to the Ovstedal farm. The story behind this split I do not know.
Roughly seventeen months after his first wife died, Andreas remarried in Polk County on January 3, 1888 to Mathilda Markuson - the sister of Anna Markuson, Mrs. John Ofstedahl. That meant two sisters married two brothers - John and Anna had married in 1884. I do not have a record, but I copied a reference to this marriage while in Polk County at the courthouse in 1995. What I noted is posted below. Andreas was in the middle of his service in the greater Fertile area at the time, and the Markuson family also lived in Goodhue County prior to moving to Polk County and settling in the area not far from where Andreas lived. I have not yet found a church record for this marriage. Andreas’ first wife and children were buried at the Little Norway Church, and below is the baptismal record for the first two children of Andreas and Matilda - also from the Little Norway church records - but I did not find a record for the marriage in the Little Norway marriage records.
The first child of Andreas and Mathilda (who were shown as married in January 1888 in a hand-copied record below) was Theodor, and he is shown above in his baptismal record at the Little Norway Church. Witnesses (or godparents) were Andreas’ mother Agathe Ofstedal, Mathilda’s father Knut Markuson, and Andreas’ siblings Simon and Anna Ofstedal.
Andreas and Matilda’s second child - Agathe Mathilde - was also baptized at Little Norway Church, the record being above. The names of the godparents/sponsors appears to be Mrs. Sina and Anders Gjerde. Sina was an older sister of Mathilda and Anders (in most later family records as Andrew) was her husband.
The excerpt to the left states that Faaberg is in Rindal, in Polk County. I visited in 1995, and believe it is just across the line into Norman County. At this church Andreas’ family were parishioners - likely his brother Simon and family, and their parents Anders and Agate. Anders, Simon, and Simon’s family members are buried in the cemetery here. In the page for Simon on this website are photographs from the cemetery, and a Rindal sign which is right by the church and cemetery.
This section at right with a diagram of the Vor Frelsers congregation, shows that as Rev. Oefstedal was ending his service, the church merged with a Strand Congeregation.
Above is the BLM Minnesota Tract Book Volume 9 record that shows Andreas filing for his land in Garfield Township in 1881, and finalizing it in 1886. In 1888, this homestead document at left shows Andreas Oefstedal's acquisition of land in Section 15 of Garfield Township in Polk County, Minnesota. Andreas had been living in the area since 1881. In November 1891, as he was getting ready to leave for his new pastoral post in Moorhead, he sold this land to Martin Haugen. In 1900, when he returned to the Fertile area, he bought land in the same township, Section 17, from Charles DePug. In the next two maps – after Andreas returned to Garfield Township, he is shown in Section 17 in the 1902 and 1915 maps. You can see the surnames of some of the original owners on the maps below.
The map at right is a closeup of Andreas Oefstedal's land in Garfield Township in 1902, and the map below is a closeup of Andreas' land in Garfield Township in 1915 - as referred to on the previous page. Notice that the town of Fertile is just one section to the south.
In the 1915 map of Garden Township, almost all landowners are still Norwegian-Americans. The father-in-law of Andreas’ sister Anna Ofstedal Gronvold - Lars Gronvold - is one of those landowners, and is shown at the western edge of Section 23, a little out of the map section shown at left.
The article to the right is about the untimely death of Andreas’ brother the Rev Nils Ofstedahl, from the June 23, 1892 issue of the Kenyon (MN) Leader, in the Holden section. This article, separate from the long article about Nils’ funeral on the cover of this same edition, lists the family members present. Rev. A. A. Ofstedal (they used this spelling for all family members in this article) of Fertile was listed. The article mistakenly lists brother Andrew of Aberdeen, South Dakota as “Andreas”. Just six weeks before Nils’ death, Anders Simonson Ofstedal, father of the Ofstedal siblings had died.
Following over ten years of service to the different churches in the greater Fertile area Andreas accepted a call in Moorhead, Minnesota in 1892 - and served a number of churches in that region, which are all shown below and include a listing of Andreas as pastor in this period.
The excerpt from the Norwegian-American Lutheran Church book at right, lists “Trefoldigheds”, which translates to Trinity. This church is where the fourth and fifth children of Andreas and Matilda - Ella and Rudolph - were baptized. The records - of Ella’s baptism in 1895, and Rudolph’s in 1897 - are shown below. I have not found a baptismal record for the third child Clarence, who was born in January 1893, probably shortly after Andreas and the family arrived in Moorhead.
This is also the church were Andreas’s sister Anna Ofstedal and Matthias Gronvold were married in 1894. Mathilda was one of the two witnesses to that ceremony - the other being Andreas and Anna’s mother Agatha. It is likely that Andras performed the marriage ceremony.
Above is a photo of the Concordia Church 1893 Confirmation Class with Rev. Oefstedal.
The photo above, provided by the Concordia Church in the Moorhead area, is of Rev. Oefstedal and the confirmation class of 1894.
From the Moorhead (MN) Daily News, of April 23, 1934. This refers to an article that appeared in the same newspaper on April 23, 1894. Rev. Oefstedal would have been two years into his posting at Moorhead. His mother and brother would have still been in the Fertile area at the time of his visit.
Above is the entry for Andreas and his family in Moorhead, Clay County, Minnesota in the 1895 Minnesota State census, taken in July 1895. They are shown with the first four of their seven children. Ella, shown at age one month in this census, was born on April 16.
From Jay Jerde, #2202-07, a photo of Rev. Andreas Oefstedal and his wife Matilde Markuson. The photo was taken at the O. E. Flaten Studio in Moorhead, Minnesota. Rev. Oefstedal was posted there from 1892 to 1897. There is a listing in the Minnesota early photographer directory for Ole E. Flaten, of Vanders Norway, who was a photographer in Moorhead, Minnesota in various locations from 1884 to 1928. In the webpage on the Lavik photo collection introduction, there is a photograph of Ole Flaten and his wife.
This photo at left is also from Jay Jerde, #2002-22. It is a photo of Rev. Andreas Oefstedal – undated here. But this same photo is cropped and used in the 1913 book of Norwegian-American pastors, shown near the beginning of this section on Andreas. Under that photograph is the date 1897 – which would have been just at the end of Rev. Oefstedal’s service in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Andreas was active in Lutheran Church, shown here speaking at a church conference. He was quoted in the St. Paul Globe of June 23, 1897, speaking during a debate on missionary work in Madagascar. It’s a much longer article – I have just shown the headline and the portion that contains the reference to Andreas. Rev. J. Ofstedahl is referenced later in the same article, but part of the original newspaper was torn away, and just his name is listed, not what he said or did.
Andreas left Moorhead in 1897 and pastored in Chicago from 1897 to 1900 at the church shown to the right. Odd Lovoll’s book - “A Century of Urban Life - The Norwegians in Chicago Before 1930” - has a map done ca WWI, that shows the Bethel Lutheran Church on Humboldt Boulevard about the location where the Oefstedals are in the census below. This would indicate that there was likely a parsonage with the church. A current map of Chicago shows that at some point the church moved to a different location a few miles south in the Humboldt Park area.
Above is the Bethel Church baptism records for 1900 - which include Eunice. The only remaining child, Eva Valborg, was born in 1902 in Fertile, and I have not found a baptism record for her yet.
Above is the 1900 census entry for Andreas and his family in Chicago - shown at 650 North Humboldt Street in Ward Fifteen. The church was in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, and the Oefstedal residence on the northern edge of this area - which was originally settled by various ethnic groups, Scandinavians being one of the major ones. The time of this census entry would have been not long before the family moved back to Fertile - ending a three-year stint in Chicago. Eva, the seventh and last child of Andreas and Mathilda, was born in January 1902. Andreas and Mathilda would return to Chicago for the last period of each of their lives.
At left is from the Minneapolis Journal of May 13, 1904 is a reference to Andreas giving a baccalaureate sermon in Fertile, Minnesota.
At right is a page from the 1902-1903 St. Olaf College catalogue. There’s an item on the next page showing Andreas’ service on the St. Olaf board of trustees. This page from that catalogue lists his term, that his residence was Fertile, Minnesota, and that during this time he was President of the Board. Below is a list of the St. Olaf Trustees (they were listed for the first seventy-five years) from the history of St. Olaf, “High on the Manitou”.
Below is an excerpt from the 1905 Minnesota State Census for Fertile, Garfield Township, Polk County, Minnesota, which contains Andreas and his family. The microfilm provided a very poor copy of the record. Andreas is shown as a minister, and this is the first census entry that shows he and Mathilda with all seven of their children - as the last one, Eva Valborg, was born in 1902 since the 1900 census.
Below if the 1910 census entry for Andreas and his family, once again all seven children with he and Matilda, in Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota. Andreas is shown as a traveling preacher. He and Matilda are shown as married for twenty-two years, and she is shown as having had seven children, with seven living in 1910. Both Andreas and Matilda are shown in their first marriage - and that is incorrect for Andreas.
To the right are the Ofstedal entries from the 1911 Northfield Minnesota City Directory. The address for the Oefstedals match the census entry address for the Oefstedals above. The Rev. “Andr.” Ofstedal is shown, as well as his children Theodore, A. Mathilda, Clarence, and Ella. John Ofstedahl’s sons Elmer and Norvald are shown, and Nils’ son Theodore is also shown. The long list of family members shows the role that St. Olaf College played among family members in this time - and the children of three different Ofstedal immigrant siblings are listed.
Late 1911 was a sad time for the Ofstedahl family. At left is the last of the obituary and funeral article for the Rev. John Ofstedahl from the November 17, 1911 Grafton, North Dakota newspaper. The full article is posted on tis website in the John Ofstedahl section. This portion shows that Rev. A. Ofstedahl (sic) of Northfield, Minnesota performed the “last sad rites” at the cemetery and preached in Norwegian at the service.
In the January 12, 1912 issue of the Grafton newspaper, shown below, there is a brief notice that the “Rev. A. Ofstedahl (sic) will conduct services at Grafton Lutheran Church, morning in Norwegian and afternoon in English”. The Grafton Church was left leaderless by Rev. John Ofstedahl’s November 11, 1911 death, and a new pastor did not accept the call until the following May. Andreas was probably one of those filling the gap during this time.
It is likely that because John Ofstedahl spelled his last name differently, the Grafton newspaper listed Andreas surname the same way. It also indicates that Andreas stayed close to John’s family in the difficult days and weeks after his brother John’s untimely death
A copy of the post card above celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Andreas' marriage to Matilda Oefstedal, is from the collection of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, and is posted at the head ot his page. The Andreas Oefstedal family moved back to Chicago ca 1912, and he was there until 1925.
The photo above, from the collection of Jay Jerde, and labeled #2002-29, is a photo of Andreas and his family. The previous photo was taken ca 1912 – which indicates that this photo was a few years earlier.
The photo above is also from the Jay Jerde Collection, numbered #2002-40. The photo was undated and the person in it was unidentified. But given it was in the family photos, and it was a tall man with gray hair and beard who could draw a crowd – the only person fitting that description in the Markuson family was Rev. Oefstedal – and Jay believes it to be of him.
After 1912, Andreas was back in Chicago as Rector of the Deaconess Home. Andreas was involved - as his biographies at the beginning show - in many Lutheran charities, as a board member or as director. This excerpt from Norlie’s history of Norwegian People in America, at right, describes charity work, as well as credits Andreas for his work as Rector of the Chicago Deaconess Home. His biographies show he was rector from 1912 to 1925, which would have been his second stint in the Chicago area. He is further listed a few pages later with the same affiliation, and that reference is included just below. The photo included is listed in one of his biographies in the pastor directories above. A third brief listing for Andreas in this same history - on a list that includes him as Rector, is not shown below.
At left is a photo of Andreas from the June 10, 1915 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. This photo seems similar to the one just above that is in the Norlie history.
The Oefstedal Children Come Of Age and Start Out On Their Own . . .
Between 1907 and 1920, the seven children of Andreas and Mathilda reached the age of eighteen. One became a Lutheran minister, another married a Lutheran minister and others made their way. This next section is not designed to be biographical, but to contain some of the references for them as they started to move out on their own.
Theodore Oefstedal, the oldest son of Andreas and Matilda, is a bit of a mystery. A “Rendezvous Reports Index” on the Fold3 website, provided the record at right which puts him on a navy ship - Catawissa - at the time of World War I, with an enlistment year of 1918. Another online record lists the Catawissa as a “civilian steam tug”. I have found a draft registration for his two brothers, but not for him. He is shown in the 1920 census in Chicago as a “ward worker” at the Chicago State Hospital for the Insane. In the 1930 census he is shown as a patient at a US Veterans Hospital in Lake County, Illinois. He appears never to have married, and according to a Cook County Ilinois death index, died in December 1963. I have not found an obituary or burial record for him.
Agatha Mathilda Oefstedal, the second oldest child of Andreas and Mathilda, likely named for her grandmother and mother. She married Gustav Larsen, of Danish ancestry, in 1919, and they had four children. The biography of her to the left and of him below are from the 1924 book of Norwegian-American educators. In Albert Markuson’s family history in the 1960’s, he referred to her as “Tulla”.
Clarence Oefstedal was the third child of Andreas and Mathilda. He married late in life and had no children. Below is his draft registration for World War I.
Rudolph Oefstedal was the fifth child of Andreas and Matilda, and the one of the seven that followed in his father’s footsteps and went into the ministry.
The photo at right is from the book "Luther College Through the Years", and is a photo of the 1920 football team - which includes Rudolph Oefstedal. He attended Luther College from 1917 to 1921.
To the right and upper right is the cover page of a book Authored by Rudolph Ofstedal, 1942 - fifth printing 1956..
On June 4, 1924, Edith Estrem married Rudolph Oefstedal. To the left is an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune of June 13, 1924. Below is Rudolph’s entry from the 1927 book of Norwegian-American Lutheran pastors.
Eva Valborg Oefstedal was the seventh and youngest child of Andreas and Matilda. At left is the biography and photo of Reuben Teslow, from the 1927 Norwegian-American Pastors Directory. Two years after this biography appeared, he married (Eva) Valborg Oefstedal
The last decades of the lives of Andreas and Matilda . . .
Andreas and his family are shown above on Rice Street in the 33rd Ward of Chicago in the 1920 census. The oldest two children are out of the house - Agatha married the year before and Theodore was listed as working in an institution in Chicago. Of the remaining five children living at home, three were listed as working. Andreas is shown as a hospital rector.
Rev. Andreas Oefstedal's last posting was in Bend, Oregon from 1926 to 1928. The article to the left announces that Andreas is the new minister and indicates that the pastor comes from southern California, a reference that is unclear. The article below was from the Bend Bulletin of October 30, 1926. The article on the following page was from the Bend Bulletin of Friday, April 27, 1928.
Andreas, Mathilda, and three of their children are shown in the 1930 census on Wayne Avenue in the 49th Ward of Chicago. Andreas is shown as a retired clergyman. The census was taken just over ten weeks before Andreas’ death.
Below are the pages from the Andreas Oefstedal funeral card. This copy was in the Carl Ofstedahl family and passed down. The funeral was held at the Bethel Lutheran Church in Chicago, where Andreas was once pastor.
Andreas Oefstedal died on June 30, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. At left and below are two obituaries from newspapers in places where he had served as pastor. At left is an obituary from the Moorhead (Minnesota) Daily News of July 1, 1930. Below is an obituary from the Bend (Oregon) Bulletin of June 30, 1930.
At right is the notice of a memorial contribution from the Faaberg Church - which Andreas had pastored and where his parents and brother Simon and his family were parishioners. There family details on the form, which is helpful in confirming all family history. It is unclear if this happened shortly after Rev. Oefstedal’s death.
Matilda Oefstdal survived Andreas by twenty-nine years. It appears she lived in Chicago the entire time, and that it is likely one or two of her unmarried daughters lived with her during this period. Matilda is shown below in the 1940 census, a renter at 6330 Claremont Street in Chicago. Shown with her are Eunice and Ella. They were all shown as being in the same place in 1935.
In August 1948, Anna Markuson Ofstedahl – sister of Matilda and widow of John Ofstedahl – died in California, and the funeral was in Grafton, North Dakota. My grandfather Carl Ofstedahl was in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Santa Rosa, California, and could not attend the funeral. So his brother, Elmer Ofstedahl wrote three letters to him before and after the funeral, describing who was coming and how it went – they are included on this site in the web page on the Rev. John Ofstedahl. In that correspondence, Elmer stated that he talked to Ella Oefstedal by phone in Chicago, and that Aunt Matilda might attend the funeral. There is no later statement that she had or had not. There was also a reference to Clarence, and that he would come with five people from Fertile. It’s clear in 1948 that the two Ofstedahl families were still in touch.
Above is the obituary of Matilda Oefstedal from the Chicago Tribune of October 19, 1959. She was the last surviving person from that immigrant Oefstedal generation – either of the siblings or their wives. Three of her children died in the few years before her – with Rudolph passing away just the June before. Matilda and Andreas are shown as having been buried in Mount Olive Cemetery – but they are not shown in the Find-A-Grave listing of burials in that cemetery.
The children of Andreas and Matilda after Andreas died . . .
There was a brief section above about the children of Andreas and Matilda when they first came of age. This will include items - mostly obituaries - from the period after Andreas and Matilda died. Once again, not designed to be biographies, but to include information on their lives and children. Right below is the section on Andreas and Matilda’s family from the Albert Markuson genealogy of the Markuson Family, prepared ca 1964. The information matches the obituaries that follow.
Theodore Oefstedal, the oldest child of Andreas and Oefstedal, died in December 1963 (which matches the Albert Markuson record above), but I cannot find an obituary for him. This listing below is from an index of Cook County, Illinois deaths that I found on-line and is lined to his census entry.
Name: Theodore Anderson
Death Date: 10 Dec 1963
Death Location: Cook County, IL
File Number: 6231220
Archive Collection Name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Deaths)
Archive repository location: Chicago, IL
Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk
At left is the obituary of Agatha M. Oefstedal Larsen - the second oldest child of Andreas and Mathilda - from the Belvidere (Ilinois) Daily Republican of May 29, 1958. Below is the obituary of Agatha’s husband, Gustav Larsen, from the Belvidere (Illinois) Daily Republican of November 18, 1948.
These two obituaries are of Clarence Oefstedal, the third oldest child of Andreas and Matilda. The obituary above is from the Chicago Tribune of May 8, 1956. The obituary at the right, in Norwegian, is from the Decorah Posten of May 10, 1956 - and is from the Rowberg File of obituaries.
The obituary at left is of Ella Oefstedal, the fourth oldest child of Andreas and Mathilda, from the Chicago Tribune of June 14, 1969.
Rev. Rudolph Ofstedal was the fifth child of Andreas and Mathilda - the one of the Ofstedal children who continued Andreas’ vocation as a Lutheran minister. The Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette obituary of July 1, 1959 is shown to the upper right. Below left is the obituary from the Washington Posten (in Norwegian) from July 3, 1959. Below right is the obituary (also in Norwegian) from the Decorah Posten of July 2, 1959. Both of the obituaries in Norwegian are from the Rowberg file. I have not been able to find an obituary for Rudolph’s widow Edith, who died in Multnomah County Oregon (where Portland is) on September 3, 1984. Edith’s family is described at the end of this particular page, in the two articles about the baptism clothes that were re-used throughout the Ofstedal and Estrem family. With that entry is the biography and photo of Rev. Paul Ofstedal - the one son of Rudolph who also became a Lutheran minister.
Eunice Oefstedal was the sixth child of Andreas and Mathilda. She was single as late as the 1940 census. Sometime after that, she married John W. Tauchen. I have not found a marriage record. He appears to have been married before, and had at least one child by his previous marriage. Eunice’s obituary above is from the April 3, 1978 Chicago Tribune. John W. Touchen’s obituary is above right, and is from the September 24, 1984 Chicago Tribune - and doesn’t mention either of his wives. I have the abstracted death record of each from a Cook County database, and it shows both of them at the same address in Park Ridge. It has been difficult to find records for Eunice after 1940.
The seventh and youngest child of Andreas and Mathilda was Eva Valborg Oefstedal, who married Rev. Reuben Teslow in 1929. Rev. Teslow died in 1965, and his obituary from the Caspar Morning Star of January 12, 1965 is shown at left. She outlived him by thirty-five years, dying in Seattle on September 9, 2000. She is listed in the social security index, in the index of the two Seattle dailies of 2000 with an obituary, and is listed in the Washington death index. But I haven’t been able to get a copy of one of the obituaries to place here.
Ofstedal – Estrem Baptismal Clothes . . .
In the course of searching for newspaper articles about any branch of the Ofstedahl/Ofstedal family, I found the two articles below. The first one, below left, is from the Valparaiso (Indiana) Vidette Messenger of September 12, 1964 and the second one, below right, from the Buffalo Center (Iowa) Tribune of November 27, 1969. There appears to have been a family tradition that any descendant of Rudolph and Edith were baptized in the same baptismal dress, which was first used in the baptism of Edith and her siblings. The 1964 article indicates that there were thirty-one baptisms with the same clothes, and the 1969 article has the number up to thirty-four. Edith appears to be pictured in the photo with the first article. She survived Rudolph by twenty-five years, passing away in 1984. These are wonderful stories.
I was in touch with Rudolph and Edith’s son, the Rev. Paul Ofstedal, from time to time up until his death in 2019, but I found these articles afterward. I would have loved to ask him his version, as he is mentioned, and his children were baptized using these clothes. Paul’s biography from the pastor directorate is above. I was in touch with a former Minnesota legislator – the late John Clawson – to whom I was related on my father’s side. He recalls a Rev. Ofstedal giving the blessing before legislative sessions, and it had to be Paul. He was the last known Ofstedal from our lines to have been a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister, capping a multi-generational tradition spanning almost one hundred forty years in the United States. Paul’s biography from the 1962 directory of Norwegian-Ameican Lutheran ministers is shown below the two articles.
