Nils Ofstedahl and Matilde Lunde – Part One

Nils was the fifth child of Anders and Agathe – born in 1854 – the third to live to adulthood.  The fourth child was also named Nils, and he died a year before Nils was born and his parents used the name again.  Nils was also the third of the Ofstedahl siblings to immigrate to America.  According to his pastor biography, he immigrated in 1872 – although he is the one of the seven Ofstedahl siblings for whom I have been yet unable to locate a passenger record of his trip from Norway to America. 

Nils died just six weeks short of his thirty-eighth birthday in 1892.  He married Matilda Lunde in Goodhue County, Minnesota in 1885.  Matilda was born September 28, 1862, likely in Minneola Township, Goodhue County, and died July 28, 1925 in Goodhue County, Minnesota.  Nils and Matilda had four children: 1) Alma Louise, born in 1888 in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, never married and died in 1972 in Scottsdale, Arizona; 2) Nils Jr., for which there isn’t a clear record – reportedly born ca 1888 and died ca 1894; 3) Theodore N., born April 6, 1891 in Zumbrota, Minnesota, married Lucille Adler, died July 17, 1978 in Phoenix, Arizona, three children; and 4) Charlotte, born April 6, 1891 (twin with Theodore), never married, died April 17, 1986 in Minneapolis.  There were at least three living children when Nils died, although the twins Theodore and Charlotte probably had no memory of him.  Census records show Matilde had four children, and her surviving three children all moved to Arizona later in life, decades after she died. 

Matilda was the daughter of Norwegian immigrant Christian Peterson (Lunde).  Christian immigrated ca 1848, had a large farm in Minneola Township close to the town of Zumbrota, and had been active in the Lutheran Church in Goodhue County.  Christian married Hilda Swenson, and had eight children – six of whom were living at the time of Christian’s death in 1904.  When Matilda died in 1925, she had survived Nils by thirty-three years and never remarried. 

Nils lived in many different places in the twenty years he lived in America.  He was in Decorah Iowa from 1875 to 1878; Winona, Minnesota, 1879; Luther Seminary 1880-1883 in Madison, Wisconsin – he was a witness to his brother Andreas’s marriage in Waupun, Wisconsin in 1881; Aberdeen, Dakota Territory, 1883-1886 (where he filed a homestead claim near his brother Andrew and other family members in Palmyra Township – but didn’t complete the claim); Blue Earth County from 1886-1889; and Nerstrand, Goodhue County, 1889-1892.  Mathilda lived in Goodhue County after Nils death, shown there with her father Christian Peterson (Lunde) in the 1895 census; was in Fillmore County, Minnesota in the 1900 census with a cousin while her children were shown in Goodhue County with her father; and by 1905, when her father died the year before, she was back in Zumbrota, Goodhue County.  She was shown with her children in Minneapolis in the early 1920’s, and her death record shows she died in Goodhue County in 1925.

The only photo I have found of Nils is from the Norwegian pastor book, and it is posted as the header of this page in colorized format. There is the possibility that one of the unidentified ones in the Lavik batch is of him.  There is a photo of a young man in Decorah, Iowa that matches the time Nils was there, but also matches the time his brother Andreas was there.

Nils had an active career as a pastor.  The two-volume history of early Norwegian-American Lutheran Churches, include the references to Nils, all shown below.  In his different pastorates he pastored at a main church, and also at churches in surrounding areas – and in the Aberdeen period he was actually the founding pastor of some of these churches – and in that period was active in NINE different congregations.  As a result of his service to these churches, there are references in various local history books and in a few newspaper articles and I will include them. 

Nils was also active in the church issues of the time.  He was a board member at St. Olaf College.  He also had a correspondence with Thorbjorg Mohn, the founding president of St. Olaf, and I will include two of the letters here.  He was mentioned in the biography of Bernt Julius Muus, another founder of St. Olaf.  

All those things that I have found about him will be included in the section that follows, and hopefully it will provide a picture of an active immigrant pastor who died before his time.

Nils biography and photo from the 1914 Norwegian-American pastor directory.  This is the only photo I have thus far been able to positively identify of Nils, shown as taken in 1890 two years before his death.  The biography also gives his immigration year as 1872.

Nils biography in Norwegian, from the Voss Immigrant history is shown above - the facts seem to be the same as the pastor biography further above, and states that he was the brother of Andreas.

Nils biographies above, list his attendance at Luther College from 1875 to 1878 – and then his attendance at Luther Seminary from 1880 to 1883.  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 (which is below left and then the first part of below right) and Luther Seminary, which is below right at the bottom  This will give some context to Nils time at both institutions.

In the 1880 census, taken in June 1880 during the time between Nils’ attendance at Luther College and Luther Seminary, he is shown as a school teacher, 26, living in the household of Knute Klementson, a farmer shown in Pine Island Township in Goodhue County, Minnesota. Later that year in October 1880 Nils applied for citizenship in Dane County, Wisconsin, the certificate for which is shown below.

These histories are important as well, because the location of Luther Seminary changed in 1889 – and it places Nils there in the Madison, Wisconsin years.  Nils’ brother Andreas was at both locations at roughly the same time.  However, Andreas was ordained in 1881 and moved immediately to a pastorate.

Forrest Brown, the late archivist for the Norwegian-American Historical Association, had a work sheet for early immigrant residents of Goodhue County. There are sheets for most of the Ofstedahl siblings, as well as Rasmus Lavik. This is the sheet for Nils Ofstedal and family.

The record above shows that N. A. Ofstedahl married Mathilde Lunde in Goodhue County on June 20, 1885.  Nils is shown to be a resident of Brown County, Dakota Territory and Matilda was shown as a resident of Goodhue County.  Rasmus Lavik was a witness, shown as R. Lavik.  Nils was already a minister in Dakota Territory.  His uncle Rasmus was a teacher at the Land Congregation nearby.  Matilda was the daughter of Christian Peterson (Lunde), who she lived with in the Zumbrota area after Nils’ death. In his obituary it was stated he immigrated in 1838, but in the 1900 census, he was shown to have immigrated in 1848.  He registered for the civil war draft ca 1863 in Goodhue County. I will talk about her family next and then return to the discussion of Nils, Mathilde, and their family.

About Matilda’s Father - Christian Peterson (Lunde) - and Family . . . . .

I am posting the obituary of Christian Peterson (Lunde) below – from the Zumbrota Independent of May 19, 1907, out of order because it tells his story better than any other document.  A later census states that he came over from Norway in 1848, not 1838, and he appears to be in the 1850 census in Rock Grove Township in Northern Illinois.  But most of the rest is accurate, as following records will show.

Back to the Story of Nils, Mathilda and their family . . .

Nils and Matilda’s marriage record above shows that Nils was a resident of Brown County, Dakota Territory (later South Dakota) at the time of their marriage in 1885. He was ministering to nine different congregations during his period there. The book of Norwegian-American Lutheran Churches - showing Nils here in Aberdeen from 1883-1886 - and lists him in a total of nine entries.  Nils married Mathilde while in the middle of his time in this region.  Consistent with pastors of the time, he was the minister for many surrounding churches as well a church in Aberdeen.  He is also shown in the book as pastor during this period at Warner Congregation in Warner; Aurland Church in Frederick (where his cousin Anders Flakoll later also served as pastor – and where his brother Andrew later lived); Aurdal in Forbes, Dickey County, North Dakota (shown at the end of the section on his brother Andrew, where Andrew appears to have been a founding congregant and where he and his wife Maria are buried); Groton; St. James in Bath; and Vor Frelsers in Clement, Dickey County, North Dakota.  I have included a few newspaper articles and references to his service in local histories as well.

The final five churches - with their entries from the Norwegian-American Lutheran Church book shown below - round out the nine churches that Nils pastored in the Aberdeen area from 1883 to 1886.  During this time he married and his new wife joined him in the area – as shown above even playing the organ for one Sunday service.  It truly sheds a light on how energetic and committed he was in this period.  Of these five, it appears that two of them did not last very long after he left.  It also shows that his cousin A. K. Flakoll ministered to two of these congregations beginning in 1892.

This record above shows that Nils Ofstedahl filed for homestead land in January 1884 and relinquished it in July 1884.  Normally it took at least five years from the original date of filing to the paying off of the land.  That can be seen above in the difference between the dates of filing and proving up of the other people listed on the page.  This same record is shown in the section on Andrew Ofstedal and is the original homestead record for Dakota Territory, Township 128, Range 65 – which is shown in Volume 43, page 194.  This is in Palmyra Township in Brown County – in what became the state of South Dakota, and a township whose northern border was also the state line between North and South Dakota.  Andrew A. Ofstedal is shown in two entries in the land record above, and paid off his one claim in 1889.  On the same page is his brother Nils.  Also on the page was Ole Stai, whose son married Andrew’s daughter.  Knud Flakoll – who was likely Knute, a brother of Agate Lavik Ofstedal and Rasmus Lavik – is shown on the page.  Anna K. Flatekval, a child of this Knute is listed on this page – and married Clarence Fulton not long after, and is shown in the 1911 map near A. O. Ofstedal.  A fourth sibling in the Lavik family – a sibling of Agate, Rasmus, and Knute – Maria, married Johannes Flatekval, and their son Halvor J. Flatekval (Flatekval is spelled slightly differently) is shown above as well.  I have found no further record of him after this land record.  There is also a Meland on this page, the Meland farm is where Anders Ofstedal lived before he sold a farm there and moved to Ovstedal.  So many family members filed for homestead lands in this area at the same time.  Nils did not complete the process, but it was at the time he was working at the nine different churches in the general area.

Nils Pastors in Blue Earth County, Minnesota for Three Years . . .

The Mohn Correspondence with Pastor Ofstedahl . . .

Rev. Thorbjorn Mohn was the first President of St. Olaf College.  Above is his biography from the 1927 Norwegian pastor book. Pastor Mohn’s papers are in the St. Olaf College archives, and contain a number of letters with Rev. Nils Ofstedal.  Following will be a description of the papers and copies of the letters. Originally I had thought to post just two letters, as just two are transcribed and one of the letters – which was transcribed – is in English.  Upon reflection, I thought I would post them all – there are seven in total.  Some copies are not of good quality and not all are dated or addressed more than with a salutation.  But I will get them into this document, and let other researchers decide if they can enhance the copies, or translate them.  Of the letters, one was addressed to Nils at Blue Cobb, when he was assigned there, and another while he was at the Vang Church.   All of them have a date on them, although Rev. Mohn seems to use just one number for the year when he dates the letter.  I will put them all together here, and place them in order chronologically.

The above letter is from Rev. Mohn to Rev. Ofstedahl, is in Norwegian, and appears to be dated in September 1888.

Above is a Letter to Pastor N. A. Ofstedahl at Little Cobb, Blue Earth County, Minnesota from Rev. Mohn.  This letter is in Norwegian and I have not transcribed or translated it.  Given the Blue Earth address, it is likely that it was dated November 14, 1888.  Nils was a pastor there from 1887 to 1889.  During this time there were divisions within the American Norwegian Lutheran Church, and the letters likely involved positions taken in those times.

This letter from Rev. Mohn to Pastor Ofstedahl was dated September 8, 1891 and was in Norwegian and obviously not transcribed.  Nils was at the Vang church at the time of the date of this letter.

This letter was from Rev. Mohn to Rev. Ofstedahl, in Norwegian, and was dated February 27, and appears to have a 1 at the end - although it is very light in the copy - which would likely make the year of the letter 1891.

This letter from Rev. Mohn to Rev. Ofstedahl is dated March 19, 1891 and is in Norwegian.  It appears to name other pastors - possibly those with whom Nils should be in contact or with whom Rev. Mohn has been in contact about church issues of the time.

This letter from Nils Ofstedahl to Rev. Mohn appears to show a great deal of energy toward the cause within the Lutheran Church.  He is contacting many people.  The letter is dated October 5, 1891 – just over seven months before Nils died.  It lists his address as Holden, Minnesota – and it appears that there was a signature on the letter that did not copy well.

This is the last of the seven letters in the Mohn archives involving Rev. Ostedahl.  It was in Norwegian, was transcribed, and was dated November 2, 1891 – a month after the previous letter and just over six months before Nils’ untimely death.

Back to Goodhue County and Vang Church . . .

The final posting of Nils' short life was from 1889 to 1892 at the Vang Church in Goodhue County.  This diagram below from the Lutheran Churches book shows the history of the local Goodhue County Lutheran churches in that period - with the Holden Church being the main church spawning many others as the region grew.  Nils was also the minister of the Hegre and Urland churches here in this period – the Urland church is shown in the chart below also.  Many of the Markuson children were baptized at the Holden Church, including Anna, the future Mrs. John Ofstedahl - and Matilda, the future Mrs. Andreas Oefstedal.  The Reppens were active there also, Martha Reppen being the mother of Mrs. John Ofstedahl and Mrs. Andreas Oefstedal.  Nils became a member of the Lands church in 1878.  When Nils’ father-in-law Christian Peterson (Lunde) died in 1904, one of his memorial services was said at the Lands Church.

Rev. Nils Ofstedahl’s Untimely Death . . .

Rev. Nils Ofstedahl died on June 14, 1892 in Nerstrand, Goodhue County, six weeks before his 38th birthday. Below is a transcription of an article, over two and a fourth pages - from the June 23, 1892 Kenyon Leader describing the funeral of Rev. Nils Ofstedahl.  The headline was “Holden’s Dismal Day.  Earth to Earth.  Ashes to Ashes.  Dust to Dust.  Urland and Wang Bury Their Beloved Pastor Rev. N. A. Ofstedahl.”  The obituary mentions that his uncle Rev. Rasmus Lavik was there, his mother Agate, and siblings, as well as his immediate family.  Nils died just one month after his father.

Matilda’s Years as a Widow . . .

Matilda had not reached her thirtieth birthday at the time Nils died. Alma was almost four, and the twins had just had their first birthday. At least two of the three children would never have a memory of their father. Matilda was left to raise them by herself. She survived Nils by thirty-three years and never remarried. She lived most of that time in or around Zumbrota, with a couple of brief exceptions shown below. She is shown in some record entries as a milliner in Zumbrota. It appears that she and the children lived with her father for much of the time until his death in 1904. The only photo I might have of Matilda is one of the children of C. P. Lunde - but the women in the photo are not identified and while she’s in it, it’s not certain which one she is.

Above is a entry from the 1895 Minnesota census, where Matilda and her children are shown with her father, a farmer, in post office Zumbrota, Minneola Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota.  Alma is shown as born in North Dakota and the rest of the family members are shown as having been born in Minnesota.  This census entry was taken three years after Nils’ death.  The location of the farm where they are living was shown in the map just above.

In the 1900 census for Minneola Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota, Theodor and Charlotte Ofstedal, each nine, are shown with their grandparents Christian and Hilda Peterson, along with Matilda’s sisters Charlotte and Clara.  It is unclear where Alma Ofstedal was in this census.

Matilda Ofstedahl is shown above with Beatke Lunde in Spring Valley, Fillmore County, Minnesota in the 1900 census. 

The 1905 Minnesota state census shows Matilda and all three children living in Zumbrota.  Matilda's father Christian had died the previous year.  Lines had been drawn through some of the columns, so it was unclear what occupation was listed for Matilda.

From the Zumbrota 100 Year History book - in the section on churches - is this photo ca 1907 of the Lands Women's Choir.  Among the choir members were Charlotte and Alma Ofstedahl – shown in the front row.  As shown in the key below the photo, Charlotte is the second from left in front and Alma is fifth from left in front.  I lightened this photo slightly from the copy in the book, as Charlotte’s photo was partially shadowed and I was trying to bring out her face more in the photo. Family members were involved in the Lands Church, and above in the section on Nils when he returned to Goodhue County in 1889 - is a chart describing the establishment of different congregations - including Lands - from the original Holden Church in the area.

The 1910 census for Zumbrota Village, Goodhue County, Minnesota, shows Mathilda Ofstedahl, a milliner, and all three children with her.

Mathilda is shown in the 1920 census in Zumbrota Village in Goodhue County.  Mathilde is shown as a milliner in a millenary shop.  Charlotte is shown with her, her occupation being a trimmer in a millenary shop.  The other two children were shown elsewhere – Alma in Des Moines, and Theodore – returned from World War I service – in Red Wing.  Alma is shown as age 32, a lodger in the William Smith household, and a stenographer in a railroad office. Theodore is shown as age 28, a roomer in the Nils Lien household, an attorney at law. The Part Two of the Nils and Mathilde section will include the children away from their mother when they went on their own.

Matilda Ofstedahl – from the Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002

Typed or Handwritten: Typed

Name: Matilda Ofstedahl

Event Type: Death

Event Date: July 28, 1925

Event Place: Goodhue, Minnesota

Record Number: 435601

Certificate Number: 004892

Certificate Year: 1925

Matilda Ofstedahl's listing in the Minnesota death index is above.  The actual death certificate is below - which shows her husband as Nils Ofstedahl and her parents as Christian Lunde born in Norway and Hilda Swenson, born in Sweden. The informant was her son, Theodore Ofstedahl.

This completes the section on Nils and Mathilda Ofstedahl, next is Part Two, their children as adults . . .