The John Ofstedahl Family 1878-1908
Rev. John Ofstedahl - Anna Markuson Ofstedahl Pt. One (1878 to 1907)
John Andersen Ofstedahl – my great-grandfather – was born on September 6, 1857, the seventh of the nine known children of Anders Simonson (Flatekval) Ofstedal and Agathe Lavik – and one of seven children who lived to adulthood and immigrated to the United States. Ofstedahll ancestry and John’s life before immigration is chronicled in the page on this site about the Ofstedahls in Norway before immigration. The Bergen Police record on immigration, and the ship passenger record of their arrival, is included in that section as well.
[FURTHER NOTE: This is a long and content-filled page on the life of John Ofstedahl and his family. It is presented chronologically, and you can scroll ahead if there’s a specific period you are interested in. There is so much information, that I have divided all the information into a second page - the break will be ca 1907, as the Ofstedahl sons moved into high school sports, John Ofstedahl passed away in 1911, and then will include information on the family and Anna until she died in 1948, in the second page.
PHOTO ABOVE - The photograph in the web page header is the 1907 Grafton Lutheran Church confirmation class, also shown below in the text here, with Rev. John Ofstedahl in the middle, and his son Carl Ofstedahl third from left in the second row.]
The Family of John Ofstedahl and Anna Markuson. John Ofstedahl was born September 6, 1857 in Ovstedal, Norway, died November 11, 1911 in Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, married August 21, 1884 Goodhue, Minnesota, Anna Jensine Markuson, born October 14, 1860 in Kenyon, Goodhue County, Minnesota, and died August 15, 1948 in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. They had ten children: 1) Adolph Ingeman, born May 31, 1885, Winchester, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and died July 30, 1891, probably at Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota; 2) Clarence Jonathan, born February 26, 1887, Winchester, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and died July 11, 1891, probably at Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota; 3) John Gerhard “Gee”, born February 19, 1889, Winchester, Winnebago, Wisconsin, died September 17, 1958, Fallbrook, San Diego County, California, married March 14, 1914 in Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, Blanche Edna Conliff, born March 16, 1889 in McCloud, Minnesota and died November 10, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, four children; 4) Elmer Dortheus, born Dec 3, 1890, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, and died February 10, 1967, probably in Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, never married; 5) Carl Arnfred, born February 21, 1893, Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, died August 22, 1967, Sonoma, Sonoma County, California, married July 17, 1922, Lake Andes, Charles Mix County, South Dakota, Josephine Phoebe Nash, born May 17, 1898, Wheeler, Charles Mix County, South Dakota and died April 16, 1985, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, three children; 6) Norval Inghof, born May 12, 1895, Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, and died January 9, 1912, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota; 7) Esther Maria Elthea (twin with Ledwin), born Sept 15, 1898, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, and died March 29, 1913, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota; 8) Ledwin Herman Urimode “Red”, also “Leddie”, (twin with Esther), born September 15, 1898, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, died February 11, 1978 in Los Angeles, California, married October 28, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, Louvenia Josephine Holland, born April 19, 1901 in Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma, and died August 16, 1992 in Riverside, California, one adopted child; 9) Amy Evangeline, born September 18, 1900, probably Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, and died February 22, 1922 in Olmsted County, Minnesota; and 10) Borghild Elfreda, born March 3, 1904, probably in Grafton, Walsh County, North Dakota, and died October 29, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, married October 21, 1925 in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, Glenn W. Landes, born July 13, 1904 in Nebraska, and died September 5, 1988 in San Diego, California, two children.
I did file a biography of John for the biography section of the Walsh County Historical Society.
John in Norway. John’s parents were from the Eksingdalen Valley northwest of Voss in Norway and lived in Flatekval and Meland prior to John’s birth – the deed where Anders sold the Meland farm being dated six months before John’s birth. Therefore, John was likely born and raised on the Ovstedal farm. He attended the Voss Teachers School from 1874 to 1878, and then migrated to America in 1878 with his parents Anders and Agate as well as his sisters Anna and Dorothea, the last of the members of his family to come across from Norway. The records of the Ovstedal family before and during immigration include John and are in a separate page on this website. He was shown as having had twenty kroner with him when he left Norway – it is unclear what the value of that was in 1878.
School and Marriage. Once in the United States, John attended St. Olaf’s College and Luther Seminary, and was beginning his first pastorate in Winchester, Wisconsin, when he married Anna Markuson in Goodhue County, Minnesota in 1884. Anna was one of thirteen children of Knute Markuson and Martha Reppen, who immigrated from the Balestrand area of Norway to Dane County, Wisconsin and then moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota – and finally to Polk County, Minnesota. As noted in the page about Andreas Oefstedal, Anna’s sister Mathilde Markuson married John Ofstedahl’s brother, the Rev. Andreas Oefstedal, four years after John and Anna were married.
Grafton. John spent the last twenty-two years of his life in Grafton, North Dakota – where he accepted the call to become the pastor of the Grafton Lutheran Church a few months before North Dakota was admitted to the union in 1889. He was a community leader during this time, helping start the local Deaconess Hospital, and presiding over the growth of the Grafton Church, both in construction and membership. The 1932 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Grafton News and Times confirmed this: “Rev. J. A. Ofstedahl . . . rendered the greatest service to [the Grafton Lutheran] church. During his pastorate the Grafton Deaconess Hospital was built and the present church edifice erected in 1896 at a cost of $5,000.”
The 1928 history of the Grafton Church – in honor of church’s fiftieth anniversary – has many mentions of Rev. Ofstedahl, who had been pastor of the church for over twenty-two of those first fifty years. He also served as the pastor for the Landstad Congregation in Auburn and St. Thomas in Pembina County.
John’s Death. Rev. Ofstedahl took almost no vacations during these years and in 1911 – after twenty-two years of continuous service – was clearly suffering from exhaustion. The church gave him a leave – but he never took it, dying in a tragic accident just days later – before he could take the leave. The funeral was one of the biggest Grafton had ever seen.
As mentioned above, his family grew during this time. (John) Gerhard, the third child of John and Anna, was born weeks before arriving in Grafton and seven more children arrived during their Grafton years. The children were as much a part of the Grafton community as their father, attending local schools, playing sports, being part of church life – each being confirmed at Grafton Lutheran. The three boys of age joined the Army in World War I – Elmer joining in Canada where he had moved a few years before the war – living by his aunt and uncle – and lost his leg in France. Gerhard and Carl served in a North Dakota recruited unit.
Anna’s life after John. In the decade after John died, Anna and most of the children remained together in Grafton. The church sold the parsonage to Anna, but tragedy continued to strike the Ofstedahl family, as Norval died eight weeks after his father and Esther a year later. After World War I, Anna, her mother, and four of the children moved to Minneapolis. Gerhard moved into the parsonage with his family. Carl moved to Pembina County, Winnipeg, and then settled in South Dakota. Amy died while her mother and siblings were living in Minneapolis. Anna, her mother, and the youngest children left Minneapolis after about five years there, and moved to Glendale, California. Gerhard, after spending two years in Bottineau County, North Dakota, moved with his family to California as well. Carl followed to California as World War II was ending. Elmer returned to Grafton, where in the 1930’s he was elected Clerk of Courts – the one Ofstedahl to remain in Grafton – dying there in 1967.
There was sadness in addition to John’s untimely death. Sons Adolfi and Clarence were born in Wisconsin, but died young in North Dakota. As mentioned, Norval and Esther both died not long after their father, and Amy died at age twenty-two in 1922. Amy died of tuberculosis, and Carl was in a California tuberculosis sanitarium from 1948 to 1951 for TB as well – my mother suggested once that his mother might have been a “carrier”.
Anna outlived John by thirty-seven years. In this page I will chronicle John’s life after immigrating from Norway, his wife’s life after, and the lives of their children lives in the Grafton era, and until they were out on their own. Eventually I hope to have a page on each of the children who survived to adulthood, with photos, records, and letters from their adult post-Grafton lives.
Obviously, since John was my great-grandfather, I have more information and artifacts about him than his parents and siblings who have been chronicled in similar pages. I also have transcribed oral histories from three of John and Anna’s grandchildren – Gerhard’s daughter Bernice, and Carl’s daughters Lois and Dorothy - my Mom – and will include brief snippets that might reflect on the Grafton years or on Anna’s life as a widow. There will be further brief narratives before the different sections.
The story of John and his family is a story of immigration and making his way in the new world, of faith and community, of family and tragedy, and of gradual assimilation and movement of the family to the west coast as everyone makes their way in America as the Norwegian roots recede into the background.
From the 1927 book of Norwegian-American Lutheran pastors is this entry for John - a good biography and an iconic photo.
Above is John Ofstedahl's biography from a book about immigration from the Voss area of Norway to America. Very Similar biography to the one from the pastor directory - the difference is that this one is in Norwegian. Below is John Ofstedahl’s biography from the 1928 Grafton Lutheran church 50th anniversary history. This biography contains items that are repeated in other biographies and his obituaries - posted later in these pages - but I thought I would post it here at the beginning to give context to the following items.
As shown in John's biographies above, he immigrated in 1878 with his family, and then was a student at St. Olaf Academy from 1878 to 1880. To the right is a history of St. Olaf Academy and College – from Norlie’s “History of Norwegian People in America” that puts that into perspective.
In the 1880 census above, John is shown in Northfield, Minnesota - the home of St. Olaf - as a 23 year old student born in Norway (fourth from the bottom). The majority of entries on his page were students, many shown as born in Norway as well. I suspect if we cross-referenced the list of students in the census to the first Norwegian-American pastor directory, we would find significant overlap.
John Ofstedahl's biographies above show he was at Luther Seminary in Madison, Wisconsin from 1881-1884. From Norlie's History of the Norwegian People is this description of Luther Seminary shown at right.
The Wisconsin Period . . . .
Rev. Ofstedahl accepted his first call at the Lutheran Church in Winchester, Wisconsin in 1884. He and Anna Markuson married in 1884, and their first three children were born here. His pastorate lasted five years – and they were eventful times, not just for the young Ofstedahl family, but for the Norwegian-American Lutheran church.
John Ofstedahl and Anna Markuson married in 1884. John preached in Winchester, Wisconsin at Easter services that year, where he made a favorable impression, and a call was issue for him to become pastor of the church in May. John and Anna were married in August. What an eventful year for the young couple.
The photo of Anna Ofstedahl upper left is from the Lavik photo collection. There were only ten identified photos in the over three hundred in the Lavik group I received in 2000., and the fact that one of those ten was my great-grandmother was a great incentive to research the identities of the unidentified people in the remaining photos. The photo above was taken in Red Wing in Goodhue County, the County where John and Anna were married, and probably dates from about the time of their marriage. James D. Kellogg operated a photo studio in Red Wing in this period, according to the Minnesota Historical Society’s Directory of early Minnesota photographers, but he - and apparently other family members - operated there during this time, but actually over a number of decades, so it is hard to pin down a time for the photograph based on that reference.
The marriage record of John Ofstedahl and Anna Markuson is above right, dated August 21, 1884 in Goodhue County, Minnesota. This is the one record in which John’s last name is spelled “Oefstedahl”. One of the two witnesses is Thomas Brusegaard, who married Anna’s sister Bertha Markuson in 1880. The other witness is named Peterson, and it is unclear what the first initial is of that witness. John’s brother Nils Ofstedahl married Mathilde Lunde the next year in Goodhue County, and her father went by Christian Peterson - but it was such a common name, it could be anyone.
The Winchester that the newly-married Ofstedahls stepped into was a Norwegian immigrant community - described below by the late Dr. Neil Eckstein of the Winchester Academy. One of the earliest community members was Peer Stromme, called by some the “Norwegian Mark Twain” - a Winchester native, born of Norwegian immigrants, trained in the ministry at St. Olaf Academy (about the same time John Ofstedahl was going there), and then was a well-known writer. His description of early Winchester, is posted at right. Peer Stromme was born in 1856 - the Ofstedahls arrived in 1884. Peer Stromme also covered the 1888 church meeting in Scandinavia, Wisconsin, that is described a little below.
The Cover of the 100th History of the church, where John Ofstedahl accepted the call in 1884, is at the upper left. Pages from that history that describe him are above right and below. This 1950 History describes Rev. John Ofstedahl's preaching an Easter service as a tryout, and being given the call to come to the church as pastor. It also describes some things that happened during that period and ends with Pastor Ofstedahl getting the call to another church (Grafton). These issues are described further in a letter from Neil Eckstein that follows shortly. Later in the same history is a reference to Rev. and Mrs. Ofstedahl founding the "Ladies Aid" at the church. Anna Ofstedahl was one of the ten women at the first meeting.
The churches shown below, all of which John Ofstedahl pastored during his time in Wisconsin, are from the 1918 History of Norwegian-American Lutheran Churches in America. There is a good outline of the history of the local churches and how there were splits in this congregation – that Neil Eckstein addresses in his letter a few items below - as well as a map of the area and where the churches were.
As was the practice, a pastor would hold down a pastorship of a consequential congregation like Winchester – and then pastor smaller outlying churches as well. We will see that this was true during his posting later in Grafton as well. The histories of three other area churches that John Ofstedahl pastored during this period, follow. The pastor from 1850-54, H. A. Preus, was from a leader pastoral family with a number of ministers, many who were leaders. The library at Luther College is named Preus library. This entry also contains a map of the region.
Coincidentally, John’s son Carl married the daughter of Ida Christensen – whose family, and uncles were located in the adjoining counties of Waupaca and Fond du Lac after their immigration from Denmark.
Rev. J. A. Ofstedahl and family are shown above in the 1885 Wisconsin state census in Winchester in Winnebago County with three people in the entry - he, Anna, and their first born child, Adolf, who was born on May 31, 1885 - three weeks before this census was taken. Two of the entrants are shown born in the United States - Anna and Adolf - and one is shown as Scandinavian, John.
Below is shown J. A. Ofstedahl’s first naturalization papers from Winnebago County, Wisconsin in 1886. It lists his birth as in 1857, that he was born in Norway, and that he arrived at the port of New York in August 1878.
John's biography in the Winchester biographical section of the 1889 History of Winnebago County, is shown above. Gerhard was the third child – born in Wisconsin shortly before John and Anna left for North Dakota – born in February 1889. This biography only mentions two children – so it must have been composed before February 1889.
The birth of the first three children in Winchester. Adolph, Clarence, and (John) Gerhard were all born in Winchester, in 1885, 1887, and 1889 respectively. The above biography was done after two were born, but just before Gerhard was born. Below are the baptism records in the church - John’s Grace Lutheran Church - for each of the three sons. There do not appear to be recognizable sponsors for any of the children. Each listing shows the date of birth, the date of the baptism, the child’s name, the parents’ name, and the sponsors. I posted the heading from the first record for Adolf, and then the actual entries for Adolf, Clarence, and (John) Gerhard:
Rev. Neil Eckstein, as he explains in the opening of this letter, was at Winchester Academy, which he co-founded, and was the director of and as a result was a historian for the local congregation as well. His letter is very helpful in the history of John Ofstedahl, how he fit into the area, and the history of the local congregation at the time of the divisions within the Norwegian-American Lutheran Church.
Mr. Eckstein wrote a book that he refers to above, "Norton’s Folly" - which is a historical novel on the period thirty years before Rev. John Ofstedahl accepted the call – and there were Norwegian and Yankee immigrants living next to each other on the Wisconsin frontier. The cover of that book is posted below left. This correspondence exchange happened in 1997. Rev. Eckstein died in 2011.
Above in his letter, Neil Eckstein describes the split in the Norwegian-American Lutheran Church in the time that John Ofstedahl pastored his first church in Winchester. That split surfaces throughout the 1880’s. In the biography of John Ofstedahl’s uncle Rasmus Lavik on this website, Rasmus was in the middle of the dispute during his time in Northfield, Minnesota while studying for the ministry.
The book by Malcolm Rosholt - the cover of which is shown to the right - devoted a portion of his book to that dispute. Mentioned is an 1888 meeting in Scandinavia, Wisconsin - which is a small town in a county adjacent to Winnebago County where Winchester is located. I have included that description of the meeting, which lists Rev. John Ofstedahl as one of the anti-Missourian pastors who attended.
Peer Stromme, a native of Winchester and mentioned at the beginning of this section on John and Anna in Wisconsin, is listed as a reporter-editor who covered the conference. J. A. Bergh, who is quoted in the article, was the father-in-law of family member John R. Lavik and is mentioned in the Lavik Photograph Collection page on this website. Pastor Theodore Mohn was the first President of St. Olaf, and had lengthy correspondence with Rev. Nils Ofstedahl, which is included in his story.
John Ofstedahl was clearly swept up in the events of the times.
The Grafton, North Dakota Period. . . .
Rev. Ofstedahl accepted his second call, at Grafton Lutheran Church in the spring of 1889. When he and Anna and their three young children moved to his new assignment, it was in Dakota Territory. North Dakota was admitted to the union before the end of the year. These were momentous years for the Ofstedahl family. The first two children died young, but another eight children joined the family – seven born after they arrived in Grafton – and the family was part of the greater Grafton community. John grew the church in many ways – with the construction of a hospital, a new church building, and much organizational development. John’s sudden death in November 1911 rocked the family and the community The family remained in Grafton after John’s death – losing two more children not long after he died – and were able to purchase the church parsonage for their family home. Three of the sons served in World War I – Elmer in a Canadian unit, and Carl and J. Gerhard in a North Dakota unit. After the war was over, Elmer, who lost a leg in the war, returned to Grafton. Not long after the war, Anna and some of the children left Grafton for Minneapolis. Son Gee and his family moved into the family house, the old parsonage, and they they left in the mid-1920’s, leaving Elmer in Grafton. He was a long-time Clerk of Courts for Walsh County, and after Gerhard and his family left, he became the only remaining member of the John Ofstedahl family left in Grafton.
On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Grafton Lutheran Church a church history was published - the cover of which is shown at left - the first of many through the years. Since Rev. Ofstedahl had been pastor for a significant part of those first fifty years, this is one of the best sources of his time as minister and he is mentioned throughout.
My Grandfather’s name is written of the cover, meaning that this was his copy of the history. It will be used many times in this section on John. Below is the history’s section describing the events surrounding his arrival in Grafton in 1889 – including a reference to the congregation joining the United Church – which had been a similar issue in Winchester.
Above are pages from the Grafton Lutheran Church records – the first reference to Rev. John Ofstedahl - from 1889. The church records were recorded in Norwegian until the 1920’s.
The Grafton Lutheran Church baptism records above show that Mrs. J. A. Ofstedahl sponsored Henry Olaf Gaarde at a baptism that was dated August 19, 1889 - meaning that Rev. Ofstedahl was at the church by that time.
The Lutheran church was the center of Ofstedahl life after Rev. Ofstedahl and his young family arrived in Grafton. The 1918 History of Norwegian-American Lutheran Churches in America contains this description and history of the Norwegian-American Lutheran churches across the country. Rev. Ofstedahl’s main church was Grafton Lutheran, but he pastored other churches in the area - and the excerpt from the Grafton Lutheran history above states that he accepted the call of the Landstad church shortly after he arrived in Grafton.
In the Grafton Lutheran church listing above left, he photo on the left is the church building until 1896. The church on the right is the one completed in 1896 where Rev. Ofstedahl was instrumental in the financing and construction. That church building served until a new building was constructed in 1953. There is a photo in a future church history of Elmer Ofstedahl with the Bible removed from the time capsule sealed when the 1896 building was opened.
Below is the church history for the Landstad congregation. Later on this webpage are two letters from elderly parishioners written in 1994 – both who remember Rev. Ofstedahl readying his team of horses and wagon to go to a second church and preach after his Grafton sermon on Sundays. The Grafton Centennial Town History, covering 1882-1982, contains the photograph below right of the Landstad Lutheran Church. The 1995 letter from Lucy Flaten states that this church building - when out of use - was moved to the Grafton historic park.
[NOTE: In the Noregian American Lutheran book there is also an entry for one of the Park River churches, Park River being in Walsh County not all that far from Grafton, there is a reference to John Ofstedahl. As hard as it is to believe, there was a second John Ofstedahl in the area when Rev. John Ofstedahl arrived in Grafton. There is a John Ofstedahl in the Grafton newspaper visiting the Krogstad family in Grafton in March 1889. I originally thought this was our John, but our John wasn’t in Grafton just quite yet. The other John Ofstedahl is represented in Walsh County deed records as well - and his family left for Oregon sometime after 1900.]
In 1890, the year after John Ofstedahl arrived in Grafton, he completed his citizenship in the Walsh County courts - shown at left. He swore allegiance to the Constitution and renounced the King of Sweden. I do not recognize the names of the witnesses.
This record indicates that he did his first papers in Winnebago County, Wisconsin in 1886. Anna Markuson Ofstedahl was born in Minnesota – a few years after her parents immigrated from Norway – and did not require naturalization.
Sadness visited John and Anna Ofstedahl in July 1891, when their oldest two sons both died - Clarence on July 11 and Adolf on July 30. I had assumed that they both had died in Grafton, as the Ofstedahl monument there includes them both. But the article above, from the August 1, 1891 Washburn Leader, states that Rev. Ofstedahl went to Fertile, Minnesota due to the death of a son. And the Little Norway Cemetery outside of Fertile - a church once stewarded by Rev. Andreas Oefstedal and where the children of Rasmus Lavik were baptized - has a grave for Clarence Ofstedahl - listed as son of Anna and J. A. Ofstedahl. I photographed the stone during a visit there in 1995. At least one of the sons must have died in Minnesota. It was before death records were kept.
Even though there was sadness at the loss of the two oldest Ofstedahl children in July 1891 - the family kept growing. Above are the baptism records from the Grafton Lutheran Church for Elmer, born in December 1890; Carl (spelled Karl above) born in February 1893 and Norval, born in May 1895. The above records - for 1891 (Elmer was born in late 1890, and baptized into 1891), 1893, and 1895 - list the birth date, the baptism date, the name of the child, the name of the parents, and the names of the sponsors. None of the sponsors seemed to be other family members.
John Ofstedahl continued to play a role in the affiars of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church. Below and to the right are excerpts from an article in the St. Paul Globe of Saturday, June 16, 1894. The beginning of the article is below - and then to the right are excerpts that mention the Rev. Andreas Ofstedahl about a conference report - and another excerpt about Rev. John Ofstedahl about Sunday School.
Speaking of Sunday School . . .
This history of the Grafton Lutheran Church Sunday School program was contained in the 1928 50th anniversary church history. It indicates that Rev. Ofstedahl was a “pioneer pastor” who organized Sunday School. However, the article credits him with starting the program in 1887, and he was not pastor until 1889. One of the interesting parts of this article - which covers the start of Sunday school until right after Rev. Ofstedahl’s death - chronicles the beginning of change from delivering all church activities in Norwegian to English.
Building a New Grafton Lutheran Church . . .
in the mid-1890’s, the Grafton Lutheran congregation outgrew the original church building and funds were raised and a newer, large church was constructed. This is one of the major items that Rev. Ofstedahl is remembered for in his pastorate. At the start of this Grafton section is the Lutheran church book entry that shows both church buildings. Below are two postcards of the building , the narrative from the 1928 church history that describes the process of organizing, building, and celebrating the new church, and more . . .
The story of the church growing, the campaign to build in, and the opening and dedication of the church - from the 1928 50th Anniversary History of the Grafton Lutheran Church begins above, goes below left, and then immediately below. The bible from the 1896 cornerstone is shown in Elmer Ofstedahl’s hands when the cornerstone was opened when a new church was dedicated in 1953 (from the 1988 church history).
Above is a metal plate with a photo of the Grafton Lutheran Church with an image of Rev. John Ofstedahl in the upper right. This plate is in the possession of Rick Grupp, son of Lois Ofstedahl Grupp, a grandchild of Rev. Ofstedahl. There is a large crowd in front of the church and going up the steps of the two entrances. The photo is not dated - so it is unknown if it is a photo of the dedication of the church, or of the funeral of Rev. Ofstedahl, which was almost fifteen years after the dedication. This photo seems to have not many buildings around the church and a power pole in the background. I have a vague recollection of someone else in the Ledwin wing of the family having such a plate as well.
Posted below are the first items from the Grafton 100th Anniversary History - the cover of which is posted to the left. Throughout the John Ofstedahl pages will be excerpts from this book. As seen right below, it contained landscape photos of Grafton in 1900. It also had pictures of early sports teams, World War I soldiers marching through Grafton, photos of Grafton Lutheran, and other tidbits. They will be interspersed chronologically in the story of Rev. John Ofstedahl and his family.
The 100th Anniversary History of Grafton - published in 1982 - included two additional photos of Grafton Lutheran. Above was an aerial view of Grafton in 1900. Grafton Lutheran Church is in the rear center of the photo, and there’s a sense of how it stood out in the community. At right, is a photo of the church and the surrounding immediate neighborhood in 1909 - both photos in the Rev. Ofstedahl era.
This article is from the St. Paul Globe of June, 23 1897, covering a meeting of the United Lutheran Church. One of the major points of discussion was church assistance to Madagascar, titled “Love for Heathen”. I included just the beginning of the article to the left, and the portion that included Rev. John Ofstedahl’s participation in the meeting below. Part of the article is missing, and unfortunately, it’s the part that describes in detail what John did at that meeting.
Three more children were added to the Ofstedahl family in 1898 and 1900. Twins Ledwin and Esther were born in 1898 and Amy was born in 1900. The baptism records from the Grafton Lutheran Church are shown above.
In the Lavik photo collection was the photo at right. It had no identification on the photo - but it is a photo of twins in baptismal clothes, taken at Ball and Rindahl Studio in Grafton, North Dakota.
The Dakota early photographer directory indicates that Ball and Rindahl operated in Grafton from 1890 through 1904. The twins, being born in 1898, fit that time frame.
Rasmus Lavik was John Ofstedahl’s uncle - who immigrated to America with John’s brother Andreas. His photo collection, which is the subject of many others pages on this website, included photos of some members of the Ofstedahl family - including the photo of Anna Markuson Ofstedahl that is included earlier on this page. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a photo of Ledwin and Esther Ofstedahl.
Shown below is the John Ofstedahl family in the 1900 federal census. They are shown in Grafton in an entry taken in June, three months before Amy was born. John is shown as a Lutheran clergyman, Gerhard is shown as “at school”, and Anna is shown as having had eight children, with six living in 1900 - matching the family records. In addition to Amy, Borghild was born in 1904. There were no North Dakota censuses in 1895 and 1905 - and the 1890 federal census was lost to fire - so this is the only census that shows the Ofstedahl family between 1885 and 1910.
There is a mention of John A. "Jens" Ofstedahl as a giant of the Lutheran church in the Pembina Pioneer Express of July 6, 1900. To the right is the first part of the article - to understand the introduction - and the end of the article, which had the mention of Rev. “Jens” A. Ofstedahl of Grafton, North Dakota. Also mentioned was Rev. A. Ofstedahl of Chicago - Andreas, John’s brother.
Above is a excerpt from the 1928 Grafton Lutheran 50th Anniversary History. It was setting the future story - that Rev. Ofstedahl did not take very much time off. That fact will come into play later - and this was the first place the authors of that history planted the seed.
The 1928 Grafton Lutheran Church history chronicled the contributions of Rev. John Ofstedahl in many ways. This section to the left, on the “Young People’s Luther League”, indicates that the first record of the League was in 1900 - but that Pastor Ofstedahl had organized the organization a few years prior to that.
Every year there were confirmation classes for parishioners children who were roughly fifteen years of age. The photo below was in the 2003 (115th Anniversary) church history. It was the first one of many that I have. There are class photos for each of the Ofstedahl children when they came of age - and I have the photo and key for each of those years from the church and will post them below. I also have the church record for each. Years ago the church made a photo of the one with my grandfather Carl, which I treasure.
Below is a 1902 deed from Walsh County deed book fourteen, showing John A. Ofstedahl buying 170 acres of land outside of Grafton. There are a few deeds involving the Ofstedahls in Walsh County, and I obtained copies of them in 2020. The most identifiable and understandable transactions involve this large parcel below - which was part of John’s probate - and the transactions involving the Anna Ofstedahl purchase of the former parsonage after John died, which will be discussed later. There was initially a little confusion on my part - because of the second John Ofstedahl in Walsh County. As mentioned earlier, that John Ofstedahl lived by Park River, was in Walsh County a few years before Pastor Ofstedahl, and moved to Oregon during the time that our Rev. John Ofstedahl was pastor in Grafton.
I researched the parcel below, and Bertha Folstad, who sold the land to John Ofstedahl in 1902, was the original homestead owner of this land - completing the homestead process in 1887. I never heard mention of “a farm” in the Ofstedahl family stories, and this was 170 acres, a fair sized piece of property. The 1910 Walsh County atlas, a section of which is shown below the deed, lists J. A. Ofstedahl on this parcel of land - which is in Harriston Township, a few miles southeast of Grafton. J. A. Ofstedahl is shown in the top row of the property owners - five parcels in from the left. These atlases usually show a mark for where a house is located on a parcel of land. For John, and many of the property owners around him, there is no mark - implying that there was no house on the land. The parcel is close enough to Grafton that if it was a working farm, it could have been worked without having to live on the property.
In 1903 (John) Gerhard Ofstedahl became the first Ofstedahl child to come of age and go through the church confirmation process. Above is the Grafton Lutheran record of confirmations - dated November 22, 1903. Johan Gerhard Ofstdahl is shown, born February 19, 1989 in Winchester, Wisconsin, the son of J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl. In the photo at right of the 1903 confirmation class, provided by the Grafton Lutheran Church, Pastor Ofstedahl is in the center back, and Gerhard appears to be right behind him to the right. Every Ofstedahl child who came of age went through this process - some after the death of Rev. Ofstedahl, and I will post below whatever records and photos I have for those confirmations.
The 1904 Grafton Lutheran baptism record for Borghild Ofstedahl, the last Ofstedahl child born and baptized, is shown above. She is shown as #7, born on March 3 and baptized on May 1, her parents J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl, and her oldest brother Gerhard Ofstedahl listed as one of the sponsors.
Building a Hospital for Grafton . . .
Rev. John Ofstedahl was instrumental in the planning, fund-raising and construction of Grafton Deaconess Hospital, a project of the church. The planning started in 1902, and the hospital was dedicated in July 1904. It was considered one of the major achievements of Pastor Ofstedahl in the twenty-two years of his pastorate. After a few years, there was a bigger building added behind the original building. In modern times, it appears to have been a nursing home. There is a long article on the hospital’s creation in the 1928 history, a Grafton News and Times article on the dedication - and many photos - as well as an 1911 article and Rev. Ofstedahl’s photo. I have posted it all below . . .
Of the images below - top left very early postcard; top right, image from a postacard from from Josephine Ofstedahl to Lois Grupp in 1963.
Bottom Left is from the History of the Norwegian People in America, and below right is from the 1928 Grafton Lutheran Church History.
Above left is an article from the Grand Forks Herald of July 18, 1911 - months before Rev. Ofstedahl’s death, showing that he stayed involved in the management of the hospital during his entire tenure. Above right is a photo portrait of Rev. Ofstedahl - which in the pastor directory was dated 1908. A very large framed copy of this photo was reportedly in the hospital. I heard in the mid-1990’s that that portrait was in the Grafton Historic Park, but I was unable to go the day I was in Grafton and check. I wioll check to see if the photo still hangers there.
This article is from the Grafton News and Times - I do not have the date, but it is likely from July, 1904.
In 1905 Elmer Ofstedahl was confirmed in the Grafton Lutheran Church. Above is the church record, that shows he was confirmed on December 3, 1905; born on December 3, 1890; and baptized on January 4, 1891. His parents were listed as J. A. and Anna Ofstedahl, and Elmer was shown as born in Grafton. At the right is the confirmation class photo provided by the Grafton Lutheran Church. Rev. Ofstedahl is in the middle. The people are not named in relation to their location in the photo, but I think Elmer is in the row behind Rev. Ofstedahl and to the left two places.
The article to the left is from the Minneapolis Journal of November 27, 1905 - showing that Rev. J. A. Ofstedahl performed weddings in Grafton, one of which was in the parsonage. The 1928 Grafton Church history states that in the first fifty years of the church, 502 weddings were performed. Since Rev. Ofstedahl was pastor for over twenty-one years, he likely performed over two hundred marriage ceremonies.
The article below is from the Grand Forks Evening Herald of February 20, 1906. There was a regional Lutheran pastor meeting. Attending were John Ofstedahl, and his brother Andreas - then of Fertile, Minnesota. Also among the pastors attending was Louis Marvick - a friend of Rasmus Lavik, who witnessed his naturalization and shows up in his photo collection with gifting him a photo of a building at Concordia College.
Another active part of the Grafton Lutheran congregation during Rev. John Ofstedahl’s tenure was The Ladie’s Aid. Below is the text on The Ladies Aid from the 1928 church history - which mentions John a number of times. There is a photo referred to in the text, which is posted below the text, and includes Anna Ofstedahl. There is an additional photo, from the 1988 church history, which includes Anna and a young Borghild. While that photo appears to be in front of a house, that photo does not match the photo of the parsonage at the time, so it must have been at another place in Grafton. Anna was listed as President of Ladies Aid in 1918 - after John’s death, but while she was still living in Grafton.
Above is the Grafton Lutheran 1907 Confirmation Class Record, that includes my grandfather Carl Ofstedahl. Below is the Grafton Lutheran Church photo with a list of the class members, the photo being the header on this page. I love this photo - my great-grandfather Rev. Ofstedahl in the center, and a young Carl Ofstedahl in the row behind him, two over from Rev. Ofstedahl. Also of interest is the listing for Allan Newgard in the same class. He and his wife Lena moved to California as well and lived nearby Carl and Josephine in Napa. I remember meeting them as a child - and Allan and Carl remained friends for the rest of their lives. Lena and Allan are buried in Grafton Lutheran Cemetery in Grafton.
