Bio of Halvor G. ODDEN (b.1862), Yellow Medicine Co., MN

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HALVOR G. ODDEN (1884)

Halvor G. Odden owns and farms 240 acres of land on sections 4 and 15, 
Sioux Agency township, and he also owns thirty-two acres of timber land 
in Renville county.  He has been a resident of the county many years 
and taken a prominent part in business and social affairs.

Mr. Odden was born in Seljord, Telemarken, Norway, July 8,m 1862. When he
was only four days old his mother, Anne (Brandmo) Odden, died. His father,
Gunder T. Oden, born August 12, 1883, still lives in the old country on 
the same farmstead on which he was born eighty years ago.

Until he was twenty-two years of age Halvor Odden lived in his native land.
He was brought up on a farm and was graduated from Kvitseid Seminary in
1881.  Thereafter until coming to America in 1884 he taught school during
the winter months and clerked in a store summers.  He arrived in the United
States in July, 1884, and came direct to Yellow Medicine county.  For two
years he worked at farm labor and taught school.

In 1886 Mr. Odden bought his Sioux Agency township farm, which was then 
only slightly improved.  He has built up the place and has one of the 
fine homes of the precinct.  For ten years after purchasing the farm 
Mr. Odden taught Norwegian parochial schools in different places.  
He now devotes his energies to farming and stock raising.

Mr. Odden has other interests.  He is a stockholder of the Eidsvold Mutual
Fire Insurance Company and has been a director of the company for the past
fourteen years.  He is an agent of the company and has written considerable
insurance in his territory.  Mr. Odden is assessor of his township and has
served in that capacity at different times for a total of six years. He was
treasurer of school district No. 65 three years and has been clerk of the
district for the past ten or twelve years.  For ten years he has also been
justice of the peace.

On the Odden farm, on September 23, 1862, occurred much of the fighting in
the so-called battle of Wood Lake.  Many relics of the conflict have been
found on the farm.

The marriage of Mr. Odden to Turi (Olson) Gjermundson occurred in Sioux
Agency township November 4, 1886.  She was born in Fillmore county,
Minnesota, May 13, 1868, and was brought to Yellow Medicine county by her
parents the same year.  Ole and Tarjer (Dahly) Gjermundson, her parents, 
now deceased, were among the early settlers of the township and county.

Fourteen children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Odden named as follows:
Anne, born 1887; Tina, born 1889; Olaf, born 1891; Thone, deceased, born
1893; Thone, born 1895; Gunda, born 1897; Harold, born 1899; Olga, born
1901; Alfred, born 1903; Manda, born 1905; Hjalmar, born 1907; Frida, born
1909; Thelma, born 1911; and Borghild, born 1913.

Source: "A History of Yellow Medicine County" by Arthur P. Rose
Published 1914