Bio of NYSTUEN, Oscar W. (b.1880), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol III, pg 798-801
OSCAR W. NYSTUEN
One of the leading insurance men of Minneapolis is Oscar W. Nystuen, president
of the Nystuen Insurance Agency, He was born at Nystuen, Norway, on September
14, 1880, and was brought to the United States by his parents when he was two
years old. His father, K. K. Nystuen, was interested in agriculture and the
family settled on a farm in Iowa, where Mr. Nystuen spent his boyhood and
received his early education in the neighborhood rural schools. When still only
a lad the family purchased another farm near Albert Lea, where they subsequently
removed and where the subject of this sketch became interested in the newspaper
business and engaged in this occupation for about ten years. This experience,
while something of an education in itself, served to show him the advisability
of further formal study in the classroom, under the direction of a trained
teacher, so he dropped his work for a year to enter the Luther Academy. At the
conclusion of this school year he re­turned to the newspaper field, but in
March, 1910, entered the life insurance business in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
as state manager for the Union Central Life of Cincinnati. That he was fitted
for the business is proved by his subsequent success, in which ability has
played a larger part than opportunity, for like so many self-made men his
opportunities have been the result of his own power to "make good." At the
beginning of the year 1916 he came to Minneapolis as the manager for the
northwestern department of the American Bankers' Insurance Company. Four years
later he organized the Nystuen Insurance Agency, Incorporated, of which he is
the president, and subsequently bought out a fire insurance agency, so that now
he writes all kinds of insurance.
On June 21, 1905, Mr. Nystuen was united in marriage to Miss Alice L. White,
daughter of the Rev. Frederick E. White, formerly superintendent of the Mankato
district of the Methodist Episcopal church. Her sister is the wife of Vernon M.
McCombs, the widely known Los Angeles clergyman who has charge of the social and
religious work among the Latin races in that city and who has achieved a
na­tional reputation for his wonderful success in this missionary enterprise.
Mr. and Mrs. Nystuen have three daughters: Dorothy M., Harriet A. and Lois L.
Nystuen.
Mr. Nystuen has a large acquaintance in the Masonic fraternity, where he has
attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and belongs to Minnehaha
Lodge, No. 5, F. & A. M.; Occidental Consistory, No. 2; and El Riad Temple of
the Mystic Shrine, all of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For several years he was a
member of the Masonic quartet and other musical societies. He takes a warm
interest in public welfare work and supports the activities of the Minneapolis
Civic & Com­merce Association and also belongs to the Minneapolis Athletic Club,
the Minneapolis Art Institute, the Minneapolis Automobile Club, and others. Mrs.
Nystuen shares her husband's interest in civic affairs, her personal activities
lying chiefly along educational and cultural lines. A talented musician, she is
widely known as a soloist, and in musical circles occupies a prominent position
as chairman of the Thursday Musical Club. Great credit is due Mr. Nystuen for
what he has ac­complished since that day so many years ago when he first entered
a newspaper office. That his life has been purposeful and his energies well
directed is manifested by his present recognized position as one of the most
important men in insurance business in Minneapolis and the Northwest.