O. S. Gunderson Photographs

Collection

Identifier: Photo 498

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

There are ten photographs in this collection that were separated from the O. S. Gunderson Papers (MSS 365). They are photographs of Nooman, North Dakota, farms, and pictures of Ole Gunderson and his family.

Dates

Majority of material found within 1901-1965

Creator

Gunderson, Ole S., 1877-1965. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection is held by the NDSU Archives

Biography

Ole S. Gunderson was born in Aarnes, Norway, a short distance northeast of Kristiania, present day Oslo, on October 26, 1877, to parents Sigvart and Oline Marie Gundersen. The spelling was later changed from Gundersen to Gunderson. In 1880 Ole’s father Sigvart emigrated to the United States. The following year his wife and children followed. They settled in Dakota Territory south of Fargo in the Red River Valley. Ole received a law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1907. Gunderson owned a law firm in Noonan, North Dakota, for a number of years. On February 25, 1914, Ole married Signe Johnson, and they had five children: Eva, Orville, Dorothy, John, and Lloyd.

Ole moved his family and his law firm to Christine, North Dakota where he lived until his death on October 18, 1965 at the age of eighty-seven. Ole had many other ventures in addition to his law practice. He sold insurance, ran for political office a number of times, and at one point was a writer for the Normanden newspaper of Grand Forks, North Dakota. His column was titled “Under the Stars and Stripes.” Additionally, Ole would often write letters to the editor for various newspapers. He worked as U.S. Conciliation Commissioner during the Great Depression. Congressmen William Lemke had recommended his appointment. He was a respected lawyer and a NPL activist. Gunderson was appointed to serve out a term as county judge in Wahpeton, North Dakota, in the late fifties. At the time of his death he had been a member of the North Dakota Bar for fifty-eight years.

O. S. Gunderson appears as the character O. H. Iverson in two of Rodney Nelson’s novels, Home River and Villy Sadness. Rodney Nelson is O. S. Gunderson’s grandson