John Ofstedahl - Anna Markuson - Part Two - 1907 - 1948
There is so much information about my great-grandparents John and Anna, and their family, that I had to break it into two pages. This page includes a number of photos from the Grafton period. At right is the 1909 Grafton High baseball team - which I have colorized - and includes my grandfather Carl Ofstedahl in the upper right back row. Written on the baseball mitt is “High Flyers”. The photo was sent to the Grafton newspaper by Carl’s lifelong friend Allan Newgard, and the photo id is below where the photo is posted.
Rev. John Ofstedahl - Anna Markuson Ofstedahl Pt. Two (1907 to 1948) - The life of John and his family until his death in 1911 and the life of Anna and Children After John Died
1907 would not have been an obvious place to divide the John Ofstedahl narrative in two, but there was so much content - that a dividing line of when the Ofstedahl sons started to be active in high school sports and graduate, and the events in the year leading up to Rev. John Ofstedahl’s November 1911 death is a good place to begin this section . . . .
The article on the right is from the Grand Forks Herald of Saturday, May 18, 1907. State track preliminaries included Grafton entrants - and listed as placing were G. Ofstedahl twice, and E. Ofstedahl once, both listed as from Grafton.
From the 1982 100th History of Grafton book is this photo of the 1907 graduating class from Grafton High. In the back row, second from right is Gerhardt (sic) Ofstedahl. The last one to be born was Borghild in 1904, and the first one to make it through high school was Gerhard.
From the 100th Anniversary History of Grafton is the 1908 Grafton Varsity Football Team. In the front row middle is Elmer Ofstedahl.
At left is a photo of the 1909 Grafton High School baseball team, which was colorized and is posted at the top of this page. It was submitted by Allan Newgard to the Grafton newspaper, which ran the photo at left and the photo ID is above. The photo caption states that Allan is the only person still living at the time it was sent to the Grafton newspaper. Carl died in 1967 and Allan died in 1974 - so it was sent during that period.
The photo at right is a Grafton Basketball Team, undated. It is from the photo album of Josephine Ofstedahl. Carl Ofstedahl is in the front row at the far left and Elmer Ofstedahl is in the back row, second from right.
From a September 21, 1907 article in the Winnipeg Tribune is a listing of subscribers to a stock sale in the National Bank of Canada. One of them is “Rev. J. A. Ofstedahl, clergyman, Grafton, N.D.” This was a full page ad and is edited to show the heading and Rev. Ofstedahl’s listing. There did not appear to be any stock listed in his probate a few years later.
To the right is a section of an article included in the 1995 Volume of Studies of the Norwegian-American Historical Association. The article, about Norwegian parochial schools in North Dakota, contains a reference to Pastor J. A. Ofstedahl at a 1908 meeting in Park River “declaiming” about persuading Lutheran parents to send their children to Norwegian school.
Also in 1908 was the 30th Anniversary of the Grafton Lutheran Church. Just below is the section in the 1928 50th Anniversary Grafton Lutheran Church book about the celebration. On the right is an article from the Grafton newspaper on the same subject. Above the history states that the “event of the day was the historical sketch of the church, given in the afternoon by the pastor, Rev. John Ofstedahl. . .”
The above brief item was in the Grafton Section of the Grand Forks Herald of Friday, August 20, 1909 - and indicates that John, Anna, and Borghild (who was then five years old) took some time off together.
In 1909 Norvald Ofstedahl came of confirmation age and was in the 1909 Grafton Lutheran confirmation class. The church record is above - and shows Norval’s birth in 1894 and his baptism the next year and that J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl were his parents. In the confirmation photo to the right, Norvald is in the second row just behind Rev. Ofstedahl.
The next year Norvald Ofstedahl is included in a news article as a Successful Student. This article was in the Grafton Section of the Grand Forks Herald of May 17, 1910.
Above is the 1910 federal census entry for the John Ofstedahl family in Grafton, which was taken in April 1910. Shown are John - a minister at the Lutheran Church - Anna and seven children. Gerhard was shown as a banker. The eighth living child, not shown with them, is Elmer. He is shown at right in the 1910 Minneapolis City Directory, with his occupation being a composer for the Augsburg Publishing House. Elmer worked in printing before World War I.
This is an interesting moment. Borghild, the youngest child, is shown as six years old. Gerhard, the oldest, is already in banking and starting his career - and Elmer is out of the house starting a career as well. As shown in the first picture below from this period, this is the family at its largest.
This photo of the Rev. John Ofstedahl family was likely taken ca 1909 - and appears to be in the same photo studio where the 1907 Grafton High graduating class photo was taken (with Gerhard) above. This photo is the header on the front page of this website, and came through my mother Dorothy Ofstedahl Laird, who had the photo for a number of years. The key on the back of the photo is shown to the right - and states “mother Anna Ofstedahl” and “Rev. Ofstedahl”, probably the handwriting of one of the children - maybe Carl. This was at the height of the family - only five of the eight children shown lived to adulthood and Rev. Ofstedahl was gone in two years. I enjoy seeing my grandfather Carl, above left, as a young man. This photo is at the top of the main page of this website.
The photo to the left was in the 1988 Grafton Lutheran church history. It is undated, but the first daughter was born in 1898, a twin of Ledwin, and daughters born in 1900 and 1904. So giventhe view of the youngest daughter - Borghild - this photo was likely taken in 1905 or at the latest 1906. The photo above came from the Norwegian-American Historical Association and must be pulled from a pastor collection of some sort. There are similar photos of style and size for Rasmus Lavik and Andreas Oefstedal - John’s brother and uncle.
The John and Anna Ofstedahl Family Home in This Period - The Parsonage
The entire time John Ofstedahl was pastor of Grafton Lutheran, the family lived in a parsonage. There were two, one that was there when they arrived (shown below), and a second that they lived in for most of the time he was pastor - although it is unclear to me the time frame of the first one and the second one. The second one was sold to Anna Ofstedahl after Rev. Ofstedahl’s death, and she lived there with their children until she moved to Minneapolis after World War I. Gerhard Ofstedahl and his family then moved into the parsonage until they left for another place in North Dakota ca 1922-1923. My oral history with Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly included a section on the parsonage - which she lived there as a very young girl. I asked her to describe the layout of the parsonage, which she knew from her time there. But the entire John Ofstedahl family lived there earlier, and from Bernice’s description, it can be drawn how the parsonage was when John’s family was in residence there.
This is the photo of the first parsonage, shown in the 1928 Grafton Lutheran Church history. As stated above, it is unclear what years this house was in use as the parsonage. The 1988 church history states that this parsonage was on 12th Street in Grafton.
Bernice Ofstedahl (Connolly) on the Second Parsonage . . .
This is the photo of the second parsonage, shown in the 1928 Grafton Lutheran Church history. The 1988 church history states that this parsonage was at 809 McHugh Avenue in Grafton. This is the house that the Ofstedahls lived in during John’s pastorate, and purchased after his death. The description of the interior of the house is described below by Bernice Ofstedahl in her oral history.
In 2007 I interviewed Bernice for an oral history. There were references to this parsonage in that interview. The first one was: “John: So you knew your grandmother in Grafton? Anna Ofstedahl.
Bernice: Grandma Ofstedahl, yes.
John: What do you remember about her?
Bernice: When my folks were first married, they built a little house. Two story, we called it the little white house. That was next door to the parsonage. My grandmother lived in the parsonage then. And then for some reason, Grandma Ofstedahl went to Minneapolis, she and Great-grandma Markuson, went to Minneapolis. Then we moved into the parsonage. Where we lived in most of my memory. My folks put in an inside bathroom, which there had never have been one.
John: Does that mean there’d been an outhouse before then?
Bernice: I guess so!
Patty (Bernice’s daughter): The crocks, the butter crocks.
Bernice: You used to buy butter, you know, I guess, in five pound crocks or whatever. And of course we little kids had these little potty seats, with each our own crock, on what would be the service porch right behind the kitchen. Rather than chasing upstairs all the time, in our one bathroom. That was pretty good in those days, to have an inside bathroom, running water, upstairs.”
The second reference to the parsonage came in regard to the funeral of Amy Ofstedahl: “Bernice: She was young. They had the funeral of course in the parlor of the parsonage. And we kids were allowed to go in and see her in the casket. And I remember a wreath around the top of casket or something. Then of course we were sent on out to play. And we went down to this dirt road which ran across the side of our property, and actually was what we took to town, this dirt road. And we’d go stand in the middle of that dirt road and we looked and we’d say, I see her soul. We were told of course Amy had a soul. We pretended we could see her soul going up to heaven. But I don’t remember too much about Grafton. I went to the first grade there.
Patty: You said that you could stand in that road and see off forever. And it was flat and there was nothing else.
Bernice: It was flat country.”
The third refrence to the parsonage in Bernice’s oral history is the major one - it describes how the house was laid out and worked - and was described by her in the time that the Gerhard family lived there after Anna Ofstedahl and children had moved to Minneapolis: “Bernice: . . . . we were living in what they call the little house next door before we moved into the parsonage.
John: Could you describe the parsonage? What was it like? What’d look it like outside and what was it like in inside?
Bernice: It was a big old house. Painted roof. I remember it being white with green trim. And a wide porch across the front and down one side. It had a vestibule in the front door, this little area that you walked into.
John: Where you could put your boots and coats and hats . . .
Bernice: Where you could put your boots and in summer it was kids you could where you could take off your muddy shoes. It seemed to me that there was some stained glass, or frosted glass on each side, because I remember that kind of an amber color coming in. And inside of that, if you went straight ahead, you’d go up the stairs to the second floor, or to the left you went into a parlor. Which was taboo to our kids most of the time.
John: Because if was considered the nice room, that you couldn’t go knock things over in.
Bernice: That’s right. I think to the right of the stairs there must have been a passage way to go back to the living room, which was a large room that went clear through the house from one side to the other. And as you faced the house on the left side there was what they called a sun porch that was closed in with windows, a lot of windows all the way around. Straight ahead to the left was a dining room with our dining room furniture and a big round table. Off to the right was a kitchen, with kitchen cabinets. There was a pump over the sink, I don’t think we had running water, maybe at first, but I can remember that still being there.
John: So you could pump from the well.
Bernice: Yes.
John: That’s a good question. I was in Grafton ten years ago but I didn’t know which house it was, so I didn’t know to look to see.
Patty: What was the church, Mom.
Bernice: Just a minute, I would like to talk about the electricity I would like to remember. I remember it only in the kitchen. But cords came down the wall. And then there was a white, I don’t know what you’d call it, material, porcelain or something, a little gadget where you could turn the lights on and off. Not inside the wall, the wires of course had been added. Then upstairs, there was a stairway that went from between the kitchen and the dining room to the upstairs hall also.
John: So there were two, one from when you came in the front door and . . .
Bernice: And one from up from the kitchen that also went out to what would be a service porch, and beyond what would be the service porch. There was a shed, an inside shed, I think it might have had dirt floors even.
John: But you could have lumber for firewood or stuff like that.
Bernice: Whatever they had out there.
John: How many bedrooms upstairs?
Bernice: Upstairs, there was I think four. There was a big front bedroom that was my folks. On one side there was a smaller room, which was mine. Then right behind my folks’ bedroom there was where the bedroom was. And then there was another bedroom toward the back. That’s the only ones I remember. The one towards the back was rather large, and all the boys were in there. Must have been another one, a small room, because we always had a live-in high school girl.”
To the right is Anna Markuson Ofstedahl’s silver cookie place - that passed from my mother to me - and it was probably once lived at the Ofstedahl parsonage in Grafton.
Getting a first-hand account of John’s time as pastor . . . .
When I was taking up family history again in the mid-1990’s, I came up with the idea that if there were parishioners who were born ca 1900, were ten or eleven at the time of Rev. John Ofstedahl’s death - they would be about 95 years of age in 1995 and I could get them to recount anything they remembered of the period. I wrote the Grafton Lutheran Church, and they sent me a name. I wrote that person, and she had a few recollections and then referred me to an older cousin, who I then followed up with. Both of those letters are posted below, and they are fascinating for a few recollections that they had. Here’s the first letter, from Lee Lykken on behalf of his father Harry Lykkien:
Here is the second letter, from Lowell Flaat on behalf of his mother Lucy Flaat:
The memories of these letters, about the services and confirmation classes in Norwegian, about Rev. Ofstedahl travelling to the other churches by horse teams - are wonderful remembrances. There is also a reference to Rev. Ofstedahl’s death. The next period leads up to that momentuous time for the church and the family.
During a visit to the Museum at Ellis Island that John and I visited in the late 1990’s, there was a photo (posted above) captioned to the effect “Norwegian-American farmers outside of Grafton, North Dakota. It is likely that some of the men in this photo were parishioners of Rev. John Ofstedahl at Grafton Lutheran Church.
At right is a page from the Northfield, Minnesota City Directory in 1911. Northfield was the home of St. Olaf College, which many Ofstedahls attended. In this listing, Norwald (sic) Ofstedahl and Elmer Ofstedahl are listed as students at St. Olaf, residing in Northfield. In an item below, Norvald was sick with tuberculosis and was brought back to Grafton from Northfield by his father early in the year.
It is interesting to note all the extended Ofstedahl family members listed in this directory. The surname is spelled Ofstedal, although none of the Ofstedahls in this listing spelled it that way. Rev. Andreas, and his children Mathilda, Clarence, Ella, and Theodore, were all also listed (normally that family spelled Oefstedal), and Theordore, son of the late Rev. Nils Ofstedahl was also listed.
The events of 1911 leading up to November 11, 1911:
The past section has photos of the family, describes where they lived, and begins to capture the confirmations and church activities that made for their busy lives. The period of 1911 seems like a more normal period for a large family active in the community - church activities, school sports, Pastor Ofstedahl continuing to work around the clock as minister. I can’t image that anything knew the turn that would be taken in their lives by the end of the year. I thought stitching together a narrative of the 1911 newspaper John Ofstedahl family references - and including the article or other things about them - would be an interesting narrative as a lead up to November 11, 1911. I initially put this list together a number of years ago, and I recall the late Forrest Brown of the Norwegian American-Historical Association reacting in a good way to the idea of setting up the story that way.
The references in the local news column of the Grafton News and Times in this year follow. Most of these I hand-copied while in the Grafton Library in 1995, and I do not have copies of the actual articles. The few articles I machine copied from the Grafton newspaper, as well as other references from the Grand Forks Herald, will be included below along with the reference. I will also note the Grand Forks Herald articles - otherwise, the reference is from a Grafton newspaper:
On Friday, January 27, 1911, “Rev J.A. Ofstedahl departed Monday evening for Northfield, Minn., where he attended a meeting of the mission board of the United Lutheran Church.” I have this actual item from the Grand Forks Herald:
On January 31, Rev. Ofstedahl returns from Northfield - from the Grand Forks Herald.
The article to the left is undated, and appears to be from the Grafton newspaper. Based on some other items in the article, it appears that this was from about 1911. It is unclear if the reference is to the same trip that is referred to in these other clippings. It is likely that the clipping came from Elmer Ofstedahl, who still lived in Grafton ca 1961 - when this item would have been in the Grafton newspaper.
On Friday, February 10: The Grafton newspaper had the same item that ran in the January 31 Grand Forks newspaper: “Rev J.A. Ofstedahl returned Sunday from Northfield where he attended a meeting of the Board of Missions.” But there was an additional item that was not in the Grand Forks mention of the same event: “He was accompanied home by his son Norvald who has been ill with pleurisy and will not be able to resume his school work at St. Olaf’s College this year.”
On Friday, February 17: “On Wednesday, 3 p.m., Ella Rye married Ernest Everson. Rev. J.A. Ofstedahl spoke the words which united the two hearts for the remainder of life’s journey.”
On Friday, February 24: “Basketball -- Local High Gives Park River a Drubbing”. Newgard scored six for Grafton. No points for Ofstedahl, the sixth player.
On Friday, April 28: “Rev. J. Ofstedahl departed Wednesday morning for Minneapolis to attend a meeting of the mission board of the United Lutheran Church.” He was gone probably ten days, as the Sunday after, Rev. Glenn of Grand Forks was speaking at the church with the subject of ‘Law Enforcement’.
The Grand Forks Herald of the same day, had an article that mentioned Carl Oftedahl (and his life-long friend Allan Newgard) on the Grafton basketball team:
On Friday, May 19: At a dual track meet, an Ofstedahl finishes second in the mile run. C. Ofstedahl was second in the high jump; the Memorial Day program featured J. A. Ofstedahl with the invocation at the opera house. The May 15 Grand Forks Herald, on the right below, featured the same track meet that was in the Grafton newspaper a few days later
On Friday, May 26: Pastor Ofstedahl officiates at the funeral of Ole S. Olson: “Rev. Ofstedahl spoke both in Norwegian and English and frequently called attention to the many noble traits of the character of the deceased.”
On Friday, June 9: Pastor Ofstedahl gave the invocation at the graduation of the 1911 Grafton High class. No Ofstedahls were in the class.
On June 14: Pastor Ofstedahl married Henry Hanson and Nettie Johnson.
On July 3: From the Grand Forks Herald, Rev. J. A. Ofstedahl performs wedding at St. Thomas Church:
On July 28: On Wednesday, Rev J.A. Ofstedahl married Gina Bestul and M.A. Haugen.
On August 11, Ida Johnson and John Hanson of Oakwood were married Wednesday morning by Rev. J.A. Ofstedahl.
On August 15, from the Grafton Section of the Grand Forks Herald, Elmer Ofstedahl to spend a few weeks in Hamilton:
On August 18: Rev. Ofstedahl officiate at the funeral of Louis Larson Wednesday afternoon. “He eulogized the departed who died confident of the glorious life beyond.”
On September 8: “The following scores were made at the shooting practice on the rifle range the first part of the week by the members of Company C . . .” Fourth on the list was G. Ofstedahl, 113.
On September 15: Rev. Ofstedahl officiates at funeral Monday for Mrs. Susie Tonjum.
On September 22: “Rev. Ofstedahl departed Tuesday evening for Minneapolis.”
On October 13: Elmer Ofstedahl plays football in game with Cavalier High - the article about the game is shown below.
On October 20 Grafton High School Wins Over East Grand Forks, wth Carl and Elmer Ofstedahl both in the game - that article shown below:
On October 27: E. and C. Ofstedahl line up for Grafton as they play Fargo in football -- C. at right end and E. at L.H.(?). The 1911 Grafton High football team - pictured in the 1982 100th Anniversary History of Grafton - is shown below. It is the football team featured in these news articles. It is amazing to see my young grandfather Carl in this photo.
On November 3: Rev. Jorgensen of Grand Forks officiates at the funeral of Elvira Johnson.
On November 10: This item in the Grafton newspaper was ominous. The article referred to Norval as Orval. The leave was never taken.
November 11, 1911 . . . .
This day was a tragic day in Ofstedahl family history. I asked Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly, Gerhard’s daughter, about it in my oral history interview with her: “. . . my mother had told me the story years later. That he (Rev. John Ofstedahl) had been very sick. Had the flu, I suppose, whatever they called it then. And Grandma had stayed up many nights and days watching him, taking care of him and she fell asleep. And he got up and walked out. And she wasn’t aware that it happened, is the way I was told the story. And of course immediately as she woke up, and discovered he was missing, they started a search party. And it was quite a while before he was found in the well. Then it was too late to save him. That’s the story I was told.” My own mother told me years ago that her grandmother had been by his bed, fell asleep, and he was gone - and that she felt guilty about that the rest of her life.
The 1928 Grafton Church History has a section on this day, which is shown to the left.
This article in the Grafton newspaper discusses the details of John’s death, John’s life, and John’s funeral. The first part of the article is above left, the second parts are above right, and the third part below left. Below immediately is an article in Norwegian from the Washington Posten about Rev. Ofstedahl’s death.
This article, also from a Grafton newspaper, was from a copy passed down in the family. It was contained in an envelope with the name of Albert Markuson (the youngest non-adopted sibling of Anna Markuson Ofstedahl), and lists Litchfield, Minnesota - and is shown just above left. The article speaks to the size of the funeral, and the number of other pastors who participated - including his brother Andreas.
There was also an article about Rev. John Ofstedahl’s funeral in the Grand Forks Herald of November 17 1911 - to the right. Below is an article from the Washington Posten after Rev. Ofstedahls death, a newspaper that published in Norwegian, that is in the “Rowberg File”, a collection of tens of thousands of obituaries of Norwegian-Americans. This file was prepared at a time that these obituaries were hand-clipped from newspapers. It is accessible at the Norwegian-American Historical Association, where I first discovered it, and also is filmed and on file at the Salt Lake City LDS Family History Library.
The obituary below implies that Rev. Ofstedahl took his own life, and was the subject of a letter to the editor that rebutted that formulation. There was a hand-written date of October 24, 1911 - but they must have meant November 24, as the date they wrote was prior to Rev. Ofstedahl’s death.
Forrest Brown, then Archivist at the Norwegian-American Historical Association provided the news article below left to me ca 1995 - and it is his typed translation that is below at right. It suggests that Rev. Ofstedahl took his own life. This was false, and the jury that looked into this found the death accidental - articles of which are posted below as well. I am unclear where this article is from. I believe there was also a letter to the editor (I will post if I find it) that clarified this matter as well. However, I suspect the initial report stuck with some people regardless of the corrrection.
The letter below was in the same envelope from Albert Markuson with the obituary clipping. I assume this was in the Grafton newspaper, but it is not noted with the clipping.
Three articles about Rev. Ofstedahl’s death. Above is from the Grand Forks Evening Times of November 13, 1911. Below left is from the Langdon (Cavalier County) Courier Democrat of November 23, 1911. And below to the right was from the Bismarck (North Dakota) Times of December 22, 1911. The initial articles all captured the details and the shock of Rev. Ofstedahl’s death. And subsequent articles clarify that it was an accidental death - an important clarification given at least one report that he had committed suicide. All of them capture the sadness of the situation - and how the initial response was community-wide. It is hard to imagine the grief of the Ofstedahl family at this time.
Below if the Death Certificate from Walsh County for John Ofstedahl. While the written text under “cause of death” was hard to read in some places, it is clear that he drowned in a well after a walk - and nervous exhaustion (?) is mentioned.
On the 100th Anniversary of Rev. John Ofstedahl’s death in 2011, I authored an article for the Walsh County Record. I do not have a hard copy of the article, but I have posted the text below:
One Hundred Years Ago In Grafton
One hundred years ago this week, a local death sent shockwaves through the Grafton community. The Rev. John Ofstedahl, the minister and spiritual leader at the Grafton Lutheran Church for nearly twenty-three years, died at age fifty-four.
On the night of November 11, 1911, Rev. Ofstedahl stayed awake into the early morning hours with his wife at his side. She fell asleep and woke to find him missing. A search by his sons failed to turn him up. An alarm was sounded and the entire male population of Grafton was called to search. He was found later that morning, having fallen in an abandoned open well on property adjoining the parsonage.
Press accounts of his funeral indicated it was the largest in Grafton history and that the local courthouse, banks, and major businesses were closed. The church was filled for his funeral, and as many were outside as made it into the standing room only crowd in the church.
The Record reported: “He was the ideal pastor. For nearly a quarter of a century he had rejoiced with them in their blessings, counseled them in their perplexities and wept with them beside their open graves.”
In looking back a hundred years, it is clear that his was the story of a immigrant coming to America with no resources who, after hard work, became the long-time spiritual leader of a tight-knit community in its earliest years.
Rev. Ofstedahl was born near Voss, Norway in 1857. He and his parents came to America in 1878, with records showing he left Norway with twenty kroner in his pocket.
He was in one of the first classes at St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota. He married the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, and took his young bride to his first pastorate in Winchester, Wisconsin, where the first of their children were born.
When he came to Grafton a few months before North Dakota was admitted to the union, he was not just the leader at Grafton Lutheran but also the pastor at the Landstad and St. Thomas Congregations.
In 1994, Grafton Lutheran put me in touch with parishioners who had been children when Rev. Ofstedahl was there. Lucy Lykken Flaat wrote of her 1909 confirmation class, saying, “He was a very nice man and a good teacher. He taught part of the class in Norwegian and the rest in English.” One of my own treasured photos is of my grandfather Carl’s 1907 confirmation class, where the class photo includes his lifelong friend Allan Newgard as well as his father.
Grafton Lutheran’s church conducted services in Norwegian and church records were in Norwegian until the 1920’s. A controversy of the day was whether to assimilate from Norwegian language and traditions. Pastor Ofstedahl is quoted in a Norwegian-American Association history speaking to a Park River meeting in 1908 urging other pastors to persuade “Lutheran parents to send their children to Norwegian school and not other Protestant schools.”
Harry Lykken remembered that Rev. Ofstedahl had a team of horses that would take him to Auburn and St. Thomas to preach on Sundays following services at Grafton Lutheran. Lucy also remembered the “team of fast horses and a buggy”.
Harry also remembered Rev. Ofstedahl’s son Elmer, a World War I veteran who lost his leg in the war, returned to Grafton after the war and was Clerk of Courts for Walsh County for many years, passing away in 1967.
One of Rev. Ofstedahl’s major accomplishments was his work to establish Deaconess Hospital, which served the Grafton community for many years before being turned into a nursing home facility. His portrait hung at the entrance there, and was hanging in the Heritage Village Museum when I came to town in 1995.
Rev. Ofstedahl was instrumental in organizing the building and dedication of the second building of Grafton Lutheran, which celebrated its first service in November 1896, and served until a new one was dedicated in 1953.
A favorite story of my grandfather Carl was about the Sunday he "cut" church, getting there just as everyone was leaving. His father noted that he had not seen him in church. Carl said he had been there and had been sitting next to two women that he had just seen walking out of the church. It turned out that those two women had sat in the first row. My grandfather said that he got into big trouble over that one.
The church sold the Ofstedahl family the parsonage after Rev. Ofstedahl’s death, and three of Rev. Ofstedahl’s sons served in World War I. Elmer remained in Grafton, but rest of the family members gradually moved west to California – where my mother, one of the last Ofstedahl descendants in her generation, sponsors an annual reunion of many of Rev. Ofstedahl’s descendants.
As the 100th anniversary of Rev. Ofstedahl’s death passes this week, I thought it important that he be remembered in the community that he served so well for many of its early years.
John Laird, a great-grandson of Rev. John Ofstedahl, serves as California’s Secretary for Natural Resources.
The Grafton Lutheran Church is how I found out that the article above had run, and sent the photos below and to the side. It is interesting that the Deaconess Hospital, for which John was so instrumental, contributed to make the plaque (and window?) possible.
The table at left is contained in the 1928 50th Anniversary Grafton Lutheran Church history. At the bottom it states that Rev. John Ofstedahl was the pastor for twenty-two of the fifty years summarized. With the article on a wedding that John performed in 1911, I mentioned the number of weddings from this chart. If you pro-rate the twenty-two years of the church’s fifty-year history against, say, over fifteen hundred baptisms, it is clear that John might have done almost seven hundred of them. This gives a flavor for the volume of work that he did as pastoral leader of the Grafton church during his time there.
On the January 12, 1912 Grand Forks Herald is Norval Ofstedahl’s obituary, and a second item about the funeral. Almost a year before, the February 10 Grafton newspaper, shown earlier on this page reported that on January 31 Rev. Ofstedahl returned from Northfield, Minnesota after a church meeting, and that: “He was accompanied home by his son Norvald who has been ill with pleurisy and will not be able to resume his school work at St. Olaf’s College this year.” The Grafton news article just before Rev. Ofstedahl’s death indicated that Norval was also ill, and was going to join Rev. and Mrs. Ofstedahl on a therapeutic trip to California. It is hard to imagine the family absorbing another loss just two months after Rev. Ofstedahl’s death. Rev. Andreas Oefstdal, John’s brother, is shown below right as being at the service, and a little below, as performing the service at Grafton on January 12 as well. Rev. Glenn of Grand Forks, who officiating at Norval Ofstedahl’s funeral, later accepted the call at Grafton Lutheran to succeed Rev. Ofstedahl as the next pastor.
My Uncle Norv, son of this Norval’s older brother Carl, was named for this Norval.
In the months after Rev. Ofstedahl’s - and then Norval’s - death, family life, probably deep in grief - continued . . . . The articles below are from Grafton newspapers unless otherwise noted.
On December 8: In basketball, C. Ofstedahl plays guard, but “E. Ofstedahl, the star of the second team, played an exceptionally good game . . .” He scored the second highest, with eight points.
On December 15: C. and E. Ofstedahl were in a winning basketball game over Minto.
On January 12, 1912: Rev. A. Ofstedahl will conduct services at Grafton Lutheran Church, morning in Norwegian and afternoon in English.[Rev. John’s brother Andreas, although he spelled his surname differently.]
On February 12, 1912: E. and C. Ofstedahl play for Grafton in losing effort (basketball?).
On May 17, 1912: L. O. Torblaa received word that Rev. Glenn of Grand Forks had accepted the call for the United Lutheran Congregation.
On May 17, 1912 (from the Grafton section of the Grand Forks Evening Times), Carl and Elmer Ofstedahl graduate from high school, and Elmer gives an oration..
On June 7, 1912 Carl and Elmer Ofstedahl graduate from high school, and Elmer gives an oration..
September 7: (from the Grafton Section of the Grand Forks Herald - Ledwin and Borghild Return from relatives at Fertile, quite likely the household of Rev. Andreas and Matilda Markuson Ofstedahl.
Both Ledwin and Esther were in the 1912 Grafton Lutheran Confirmation Class. There were two classes, one was in Norwegian and the other in English. Ledwin and Esther were in the Norwegian class - the Grafton Lutheran church record for which is shown at the right. Rev. J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl are shown as their parents, and the record is dated December 1, 1912. There was a class photo, like the previous class photos shown with Ofstedahl children in them posted above. Ledwin and Esther did not appear in the 1912 confirmation class photograph.
From the 50th Anniversary History of the Grafton Lutheran Church:
The excerpt above introduces the subject of the parsonage being purchased by Anna Ofstedahl - but also, interestingly, indicates that one church service would be held in English, rather than Norwegian, for the first time. Records of the church were in Norwegian until the 1920’s.
The deed that sold the parsonage from the Grafton Lutheran Church to Anna Ofstedahl is above. The picture of the house, and Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly’s description of the interior, has been posted earlier.
In 1913 a large monument was made and unveiled at the Grafton Lutheran cemetery in Grafton. I visited the cemetery in 1995 and apparently did not come away with a photo. It is a large monument and also references Anna and the children who died before adulthood. Below is the section on the monument from the 50th Anniversary church history (1928), and below it is the article from the Bismarck Tribune of November 13, 1913 - almost two years to the day after Rev. Ofstedahl’s death. To the right is the article from the Grand Forks Times of October 29, 1913.
This item below - from the Grafton Section of the March 31, 1913 Grand Forks Evening Times, fits with the obituary below right. Wednesday would be March 26 - and Esther reportedly died three days later. Dunseith - in Rolette County - is about 150 miles northwest of Grafton in North Dakota.
To the right is the obituary of Esther Ofstedahl from a Grafton newspaper. She died in early 1913. I show a March 29 death date, but the obituary states she died a year and a day after Norval - and he died in January 1912. The item below was from the Grafton section of the Grand Forks Herald of April 2, 1913 - which seems to confirm the March 29 death date for Esther. It also indicates that Carl was in Winnipeg in 1913.
Esther was the twin of Ledwin. Her death was the third to strike the family in just over a year. It is hard to imagine the loss her mother and siblings felt at that time.
The article above left states that Carl Ofstedahl came from Winnipeg to Grafton for his sister’s funeral. There was an old family story I heard from my mother when younger, that the family started reading about an Ofstedahl playing sports in Winnipeg, and find out later that it was Carl. This article to the left ran in the Winnipeg Tribune of September 26, 1914. There was a second one a few weeks later.
In March 1914, Gerhard Ofstedahl married Blanch Conliff in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the oral history of their daughter Bernice, they met in Grafton. The Conliffs lived in Minneapolis, which is probably the reason for the ceremony there.
Gerhard (Gee) was the first of the four Ofstedahl siblings who eventually married, to marry. He and Borghild were married in Minneapolis, Carl in South Dakota, and Ledwin in California - none were married in Grafton. Elmer, who remained in Grafton, never married.
Gerhard lived in Grafton, except for his time as a soldier, until they left ca 1923, to run a hotel in Willow City. In 1925, they left for California, the last ones other than Elmer, to leave Grafton and North Dakota.
Gerhard and Blanch had four children, all born in Grafton. The fact that Bernice, born in Grafton in 1917, was one of them - and they didn’t leave Grafton until 1923, allowed for her to have memories of Grafton in the 2005 oral history I taped with her.
In Grafton, Bernice indicated that a small house was built on the former parsonage property, and that is where Gerhard and family initially lived. Then when Anna and the remaining children at home moved to Minneapolis after World War I, the Gerhard Ofstedahl family moved into the former parsonage.
John’s probate was filed in Walsh County. He died intestate, or without a will. The letters of administration are shown here, filed in March 1914. They name Gerhard as the administrator. The heirs were listed as Anna Ofstedahl and the six surviving children at the time the probate was filed (Esther had died in early 1913, as shown above). The probate was not concluded until the 1920’s - and there is a property record associated with it that also did not conclude until the 1920’s. The major asset was the 170 acres of land, the value of which was listed as $5,000. These letters of administration also listed an address for each heir. Elmer is already listed as being in Gull Lake Saskatchewan in Canada. Carl is listed as living in Winnipeg. Anna and the remaining children are shown in Grafton. There are other papers in the probate file, such as the distribution and the listing of assets. Everything basically went to Anna.
In 1915 Amy Ofstedahl was in the confirmation class. The Grafton Lutheran record is to the right, dated November 1, 1915 and listed J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl as Amy’s parents. The photo is below, showing the class with Rev. Glenn, Rev. Ofstedahl’s successor. The church record listed Amy in the English class, but the photograph below lists her in the Norwegian class.
To the right is the entry containing Anna and her family in Grafton in the 1915 North Dakota State Census. Gerhard is there with his wife Blanch, as are the three youngest children - Ledwin, Borghild, and Amy. Carl and Elmer round out the family at that time, and they are shown in the two census entries immediately following.
Carl Ofstedahl is shown in the 1915 North Dakota state census in Pembina County - the North Dakota county between Grafton and the Canadian border. He was enumerated with John Wilker. John Wilker is shown with his family in the 1910 and 1920 federal censuses in Pembina County - in each entry as a rural mail driver.
Elmer Ofstedahl is shown below in the 1916 Canadian census in Gull Lake in Saskatchewan. Elmer is shown as a “soldier”. He is enumerated with his uncle Albert Markuson (Anna Ofstedahl’s brother - mentioned earlier) and his family. Albert is listed as a salesman. On the same census page are Oscar and Lillie Englestad and family. Lillie was a sister of Albert as well as Anna Ofstedahl. In the 1914 probate document above, Elmer is listed as living in Gull Lake. I have obtained Canadian homestead documents showing that Elmer applied for a homestead in this area in 1913 and it was granted in 1919. I always thought he moved to Canada to join the Canadian Army - which was in World War I before the United States. But it appears that at the time of enlistment he had already been there for a few years - drawn by his aunts and uncles also being there.
Photos of Ofstedahl family members, most likely from this period . . .
There are some updated photos of Ofstedahl family members, some clearly in Grafton, others that may be from this period - that I will put here, with an explanation of each, to the extent I have one.
The photo at left is of three Grafton High athletes in their “G” sweaters. Elmer Ofstedahl is the one on the right.
The undated photo on the right is likely Grafton High basketball ca 1910-1912. Carl Ofstedahl is in the front left and is appears to be Elmer Ofstedahl in the back row second from right.
This is an interesting photo. It is undated, and appears to be a football team - likely Grafton High? Carl Ofstedahl is in the front left. All the other players shown have a marking over their face.
Above are Grafton football players lining up on an unpaved street, likely in Grafton. That’s my Mom’s handwriting as the ID, and in the background is Elmer Ofstedahl standing. Right above is a magnified view of the photo imprint in the lower right corner, that reads Ball & Knudson, and an unclear word which is likely Grafton. The Dakota photographer directory lists Ball and Knuson as having photographed in Grafton in 1910, which places the date of the photo. .
Below is a photo of Carl Ofstedahl between ages 18-20, which would place the photo about 1911-1913 - the handwriting looking like Josephine Ofstedahl’s.
The photo at right was in postcard format, and was in a photo album of Josephine Ofstedahl. Carl Ofstedahl is at left, and the other two young men are not identified. It is clearly from the Grafton era.
The photo on the right is of a young Carl Ofstedahl, undated. Below is Carl Ofstedahl upper right with four unidentified men, undated.
This photograph - on the back of a postcard - is of four young men. Elmer Ofstedahl is the young man on the left, and he looks just like my brother Jim Laird in this photo. The message side shows this was on a postcard sent from Elmer Ofstedahl to Gee Ofstedahl. If appears to be addressed to a unit care of Grand Forks.
The postcard at the left is a number of young men, and Ledwin Ofstedahl is shown at the lower right. The post card marking states Kregel Photo (Studio) at 404 Wabasha Street in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Minnesota Photographer Directory lists Clayton Kregel at that address, operating in 1913 and 1916.
To the right is the Grafton Lutheran Church record showing Borghild Ofstedahl in the 1918 confirmation class - the last of eight Ofstedahl children to be confirmed. The record to the right is dated in early 1919, and the class photo below, with Borghild in it, states that even though it was the class of 1918, they weren’t confirmed until 1919 because of the flu epidemic.
The Ofstedahl Brothers in World War I . . .
[NOTE: There is so much information about the Ofstedahl Brothers in World War I,that I have posted a separate page with all their information. I briefly address their service here to put it in context.]
Elmer, Gerhard, and Carl Ofstedahl all served in World War I. Elmer enlisted in the Canadian Army since he was a resident of Canada at the time - and above is shown as a “solder” in the 1916 Canadian census. Carl and Gerhard were in North Dakota-based units All three served in Europe. I hope to have a separate page on this website about World War I service. There are many news articles about Elmer. I have Elmer’s pay book - and also some journals he kept, although they are not personal but about training he received in fire and other subjects. They are in pencil, but can be enhanced. I have them all scanned.
I also have Elmer’s World War I file from Canada. I was attending a Western Governors conference in 2017 in Montana, where one of the speakers was the Canadian Ambassador to the United States. He said his family was American, but his grandfather crossed into Canada and enlisted in the Canadian army. I went up to him after his talk, introduced myself, and said my grandfather’s brother had done the same thing. He said they were digitizing the World War I service files, and could I give him a business card and he would work to get me Elmer’s file. I got a follow up call about Elmer’s unit, which I was able to give to him, and later a pdf of over one hundred pages materialized - so I have Elmer’s file in digitized format.
Elmer lost his leg after being wounded in combat, and this figures prominently in the news stories and in his service record. It also won him recognition as a veteran. I will post a photo of a Grafton baseball team from 1919 below, and it tells the story of Elmer’s World War I service.
My brother has Carl’s helmet, I digitized the photo of Carl’s unit, and we are a few news references to them. One of Gerhard’s grandsons is searching for an item of his. Rudy Lavik wrote letters home, and in one he got together with Ted Ofstedahl, son of Nils Ofstedahl. American soldier service files were lost in a fire - so I have the record of Carl’s last payment as a soldier. I will try to put all these into the page on the Ofstedahls and World War I. In the meantime, there was a book on Walsh County (North Dakota) in the World War, and I will post the biographies of the Ofstedahls in that - which included photos of Elmer and Gerhard. I will also find one or two news articles about Elmer that tell that story.
There was one story that was always told in the family. Carl was in France, and whenever an officer entered a group of soldiers, the soldiers were required to salute. One day that happened, everyone got to attention, and Carl realized that the officer was his brother Gerhard.
These are the biographies from the Walsh County World War I book.
Lt. J. G. (John Gerhard) or Gee Ofstedahl. Company C was associated with North Dakota. I do not know the source of this photo - it could be from one of his descendants.
Below are two articles about Elmer. The first is from the Oshkosh Wisconsin Daily Northwestern of June 4, 1917. The second is from the Grand Forks Herald of July 1, 1918. The first, below left, is alarming. It first lists Elmer as presumed dead. I cannot even imagine how Anna Ofstedahl processed this information, after so much loss in her family. There are series of articles about his hospitalization not posted here. And then there is the article saying that the “Grafton Boy” has returned home, and describes what had happened to him.
The Grafton Centennial book had a section titled “Early Baseball in Grafton”. Included in that section was the photograph below. While is includes a team that appears to be from 1919, Elmer Ofstedahl is also in the photo, and the caption below tells the story of his service in World War I.
The Ofstedahl Family in the 1920 census . . .
In the 1920 census, Anna and her children Elmer, Amy, Ledwin, and Borghild were shown in Minneapolis. Gerhard and his wife and first two children were shown in Grafton, where they had moved into the parsonage after Anna and the other children went to Minneapolis. Carl was shown in Platte, Charles Mix County, South Dakota - where he was working with the same lumber yard that he had worked for in North Dakota, and where he would marry in two years and start his family. Each of those three entries is posted below.
Anna Ofstedahl and children Amy, Borghild, Elmer, and Ledwin are shown at the same address in the 1920 Minneapolis City Directory, which matches the 1920 census entry above. Martha Markuson, Anna’s mother, is shown at the same address in 1921 to the right - listed as the widow of Knute (Markuson). Anna and her family are shown in the 1920, 1921, and 1922 Minneapolis City Directories. Martha is shown at the same address from 1921 to 1925. It is possible that the Ofstedahls were with her in those years, but not listed in the directory. When Anna came to California ca 1925, Martha was with her.
Amy Ofstedahl’s obituary from the March 2, 1922 Grand Forks Herald is to the right. Below is the death record from Olmsted County Minnesota records, showing that Amy was born in America with her father born in Norway and her mother in America.
Bernice Ofstedahl (Connolly) was five and living in Grafton with her family when Amy died. In her oral history, she remembered: “I remember her [her grandmother Anna Ofstedahl] mostly in Minneapolis. Because I later when down to Minneapolis. But what I remember about in Grafton is my Dad had a sister Amy that died fairly young, maybe eighteen, I don’t know exactly.
John: Yes, exactly.
Bernice: She was young. They had the funeral of course in the parlor of
the parsonage. And we kids were allowed to go in and see her in the casket. And I remember a wreath around the top of casket or something. Then of course we were sent on out to play. And we went down to this dirt road which ran across the side of our property, and actually was what we took to town, this dirt road. And we’d go stand in the middle of that dirt road and we looked and we’d say, I see her soul. We were told of course Amy had a soul. We pretended we could see her soul going up to heaven. But I don’t remember too much about Grafton. I went to the first grade there.
Carl Ofstedahl, shown above in Platte, Charles Mix County, South Dakota in the 1920 census -where he landed in a lumber yard job - married Josephine Nash there in 1922. Her family had homesteaded in Carroll Township there during the Dakota Boom in 1883. Their first child, Lois, was born late the next year.
In 1999, I did an oral history with Lois, and she described the way her parents had met. There was a dance in Platte for returning World War I soldiers, of which Carl was one. All the women had poppies to pin on the returning soldiers, and Josephine chose to pin Carl. As Lois said, that “started the romance”.
In the 1925 census year, only two Ofstedahls were in states where there were enumerations. Carl Ofstedahl was in Platte, South Dakota, and the records I have are of individual cards for each person enumerated. The last child of Carl and Josephine - Norval - was born in 1925 after the census was taken. So there are cards for Carl, Josephine, Lois, and Dorothy - which I have not posted here. The other place an Ofstedahl was enumerated was in WIllow City, Bottineau County, North Dakota, where Gerhard and Blanch were running a hotel. Bernice recounted that time in her oral history, and I will post the information about the time in Willow City below the census entry.
Here is the section of the interview with Bernice about their time in Willow City, North Dakota, where they were enumerated in the census above: “Bernice: Yes, we were all born in Grafton, and we lived there until I was six. And then we moved to Willow City, where my Dad had gone ahead of us. He worked at a bank in Grafton, and I don’t know whether he thought he was going to do better in this Willow City. But he went there with some other man, they were running a hotel. I suppose they rented it. And so we followed. They ran this hotel for, oh gosh, probably a couple of years. And during that time my Dad, also with another man, had a little restaurant in town, which the town was very small, I think population of five hundred, which included farms out around too. They ran this little alcafe (?). But I remember my mother working like a dog in that hotel. It was across the street from a train depot. And about the only people they had living there would be salesmen, travelling salesmen who would stop there. There were probably ten rooms. It wasn’t really big. With a high school girl, she did with an old I think a gas wash machine out on the back porch, I remember the lid was like a three legged stool. I don’t remember if it was gas, it was run by kerosene maybe. She’d wash the sheets, pillow slips, and do all this laundry for the hotel. And like I said with she and usually just a high school girl to help, kept these beds changed, furrows (?) cleaned, and rented, sometimes we would have quite a few salesmen and whatever living there. And sometimes I remember not too many. But she cooked meals and served meals, served dinner every noon as I recall. They had school teachers and various local people come in and have their noon meals there. Here she had all these four little kids. I turned seven while we lived there. So it was a rough life.”
The article at the right is from the Casper (Wyoming) Star Tribune of October 28, 1925. Borghild Ofstedahl Landes’ granddaughter, Kerry Rousselot, had been in contact about the fact that she could find no marriage record for her grandmother. I looked, and then I looked in newspaper services to which I subscribe - and was able to find the article to the right. We still have not found a record of the marriage, but this gives a good description of where it happened. It states that they will make their home in Minnesota, but it was not long after - as described below by Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly - that they moved to California.
Moving to California . . .
By the end of their lives, every surviving member of the Ofstedahl family, except for Elmer who remained in Grafton, made their way to California. It appears that Anna was first, along with her mother Martha and son Ledwin - and that they went not long after the marriage of Borghild described in the above clipping. Gerhard and his family followed shortly thereafter. And Borghild followed soon after as well. They all settled in Glendale, or surrounding communities. Carl remained in South Dakota until his last children were gone, and he and Jo moved out to Northern California somewhere around the end of 1945. They children Norval and Dotty were in Northern California as well, and their daughter Lois was in Glendale near the other family members who had come to California. Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly told about her familly arriving in California, and also about Borghild and Glenn’s trip to California. I have posted each of those accounts below.
Anna Ofstedahl and her mother Martha Markson come to California, as described by Bernice: “Bernice: Oh, when they lived in Glendale, they came to Glendale. Probably was 1924. And where they lived was in a walnut orchard, all these walnut trees. And Greatgrandma would go around with her little cane and a little bag, and pick up walnuts off the ground. But then she’d sit under a shade tree in the backyard with her Bible. And she’d read it, just kind of in a whisper (makes noises of what it was like – a soft bzz – bzz - bzz). My mother told me that she had read the Bible through thirty some times.
Patty: In Norwegian.
Bernice: in Norwegian, of course. And she lived until . . .
John: about 1931. . .”
Gerhard and his family come to California, as described by Bernice: “Bernice: When we came to California on the train, shortly after Christmas, and I don’t remember the exact days. We left Minnesota, quite a blizzard was going on. Because the train passed my Grandmother Confliff’s home. It came out from under a tunnel right across the street from the duplex where she lived. And I remember there being a blizzard and all this snow. So we arrived three days later in Old Union Station downtown LA. And my Aunt Jessie, who is my mother’s sister, met us at the train station, and we walked, all these four little kids, all bundled up in our winter clothes we left Minnesota in. And the red car had that tunnel then went to the subway station, and took the red car out to Glendale. And all we knew is we get off at Sonora, and walk south until we get to #604, which was my grandmother’s address. We had suitcases, and overcoats, we must have been a sight.
John: But that’s how you arrived in California.
Bernice: Yeah, we did.”
Glenn and Peggy Landes come to California, as described by Bernice: “John: Was she living with your grandmother and great-grandmother when you came out to California, or did she come out later?
Bernice: They had come out before us. Peg got married. We called her Peg. Borghild got married. I don’t remember if she got married before or after. She must have got married before they came to California. Because we had been out here, we came January 1, they came the following winter. And they had the baby then. Betty Lou was born in August. I always remember her birthday, August 14. The girls were surprised that for some reason it stuck in my mind. But they came out the following winter. And I always heard the story. They were driving to California in an old, I don’t know it was a Model T, certainly it wasn’t a very elaborate car. And they came through the Black Hills of South Dakota. They just had terrible time, and the cold and snow, getting through those awful roads and everything, with this little baby. And they got to Cheyenne Wyoming where Glen, her husband, of course his father lived there. His father worked for the railroad at the time. So he just took their car and sold it and bought railroad tickets for them come the rest of the way. (Laughter) He said with that baby you’re not going to drive any more.”
These three photos are all from Kerry Rousselot, granddaughter of Borghild Ofstedahl Landes. Her mother, Betty Lou, was born in 1926. These three photos are all of Betty Lou. The one at top left was Martha Markuson, mother of Anna Ofstedahl. The other two photos are of Anna Ofstedahl and Betty Lou Landes. The one just below shows her as a young girl. The other one, below left, shows her as a toddler - as she was with Martha Markuson - with Anna Ofstedahl. Martha and Anna came to California ca 1925 - so it is likely these photos were taken in California.
1930 Census. Above is the census entry for Anna Ofstedahl and Martha Markuson in the 1930 census. Ledwin is with them. They are shown at the 604 Sonora address in Glendale. In this year, Elmer was shown in Grafton, Carl and his family in Platte, South Dakota, Blanch Ofstedahl and two children in Burbank, and Peggy and Glenn in Glendale as well. I have been unable, thus far, to find Gerhard Ofstedahl in this census.
My mother had this Bible of her grandmother Mrs. Anna Ofstedahl, shown at right. She gave the Bible to Kerry Rousselot, Borghild Ofstedahl Landes’ granddaughter. It has an address of Dover Road in Pasadena inside. The inside pages have copyrights of 1901 and 1929, indicating that the Bible was with Anna after she lived in Grafton. I have placed it here chronologically, because it was probably acquired and used during this period.
In December 1930, Martha Reppen Markuson, the mother of Anna Ofstedahl, died in Glendale. She had lived with Anna for the last ten or fifteen years of her life - and there is a description of her reading the Bible by Bernice above in the “moving to California” section. Below left is a photo of her in 1927. Below right is an article about her funeral, sent by a family member - likely Jay Jerde - who has done much research on the Markuson side. It mentions Anna, Elmer, and Anna’s siblings at the time. Maple Lake and Concordia were in Polk County, Minnesota, which is where Knute and Martha moved in the 1880’s and lived until Knute died.
To the right is the Glendale City Directory for 1936, which shows Anna on Sonora Avenue and Ledwin, a carpenter, living with her. SHe was also in the 1930 Glendale City Directory with Ledwin at the same address.
The 1940 census shows Anna Ofstedahl with Glen and Borghild Landes and family on Cordova Avenue in Glendale, California. Ledwin and Gerhard and families were in Glendale also. Carl was in Geddes, Charles Mix County, South Dakota - and Elmer was in Grafton, North Dakota.
The letter to the right is from Anna Ofstedahl, dated July 30, 1948, which is just two weeks before her death. The address for Anna is the same address that she had listed inside the Bible that is referred to above. The letter is addressed to “Dear Folks” - which is probably Carl and his family. Carl was probably in the tuberculosis sanitarium at this time. Bernice Ofstedahl Connolly, in her oral history, referred to the tremor that both Anna and her mother Martha had. The writing in this letter seems to validate that.
On the left is Anna Ofstedahl’s death certificate in Los Angeles County, California. Her address is the same Dove Road address. Her son Elmer is listed as the informant. Her ancestral listings of her parents are correct.
What follows are four pages - three letters from Elmer Ofstedahl to Carl Ofstedahl in August 1948 about the preaprations for Anna Ofstedahl’s funeral and what actually happened. They are on Elmer’s letterhead as Clerk of Courts in Grafton, where the services were held. Carl was in the tuberculosis sanitorium in Santa Rosa, California and could not attend his mother’s services. Elmer worked to keep him informed. The letters include references to family members with whom they were in touch - on both the Markuson and Ofstedahl side. It is a good summary.
That’s the story of Rev. John Ofstedahl and His Family . . .
I have tried to present all information and images that I have been able to find. If anyone has other items, I would happily consider adding them. It’s a powerful story of immigration, faith, community, and family across two continents – in good times and bad. I am pleased to have been able to present it so thoroughly and hope it has been informative to you.