Oscar Adolph Christensen was born February 20, 1880 to Otto A. and Mina K. Christensen at Moorhead Minnesota, the second of three children.  He was a farmer and was active in early farm organizations including the Farmer’s Union.  He later resided at St. Paul, Minnesota.  He married his wife, Julia, in 1923, and she died in 1960.  He died January 25, 1976.

His father, Otto Augustus Christensen, was born July 28, 1851 in Lyons, Iowa, to Abraham and Catherine Christensen, immigrants from Lillesand, Norway.  The family moved to Houston, Minnesota, where Mr. Christensen’s father died in 1855.  As his mother had to leave him to seek work, he was raised by foster parents and later by his sister, Mathilda Bergland.  In 1873, at age 21, he went to work in a lumber camp at Brunswick, Minnesota.  Later he attended Caledonia Academy, was a cook for Lamb Brothers Brick Yard, and clerked for G.S. Barnes in Glyndon.  He was the first teacher at Buffalo river School and was a clerk for James Sharp in Moorhead.

In 1875 he established a homestead at Oakport Landing and on October 14, 1877 he married Mina Juve of Buffalo River, Minnesota.  They had three children; Amy, Oscar, and George Milton. In 1882, Mina died of pneumonia.  In January 1890, the widower married his Danish housekeeper, Andrea Nielson, a widow with one daughter.  They had eight children; Ruth Mina, John, Milton, Agnes Catherine, Clara, Daniel, and Lillian.  On October 17, 1918, Mr. Christensen died of injuries received earlier in an automobile accident.  He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Moorhead.

He was a member of Sovereigns of Industry, and the Grange.  He was the town clerk of Oakport for over 35 years.  He was also active in the temperance movement, and in the Populist, and Socialist Parties.
 
 

Oscar Christensen Papers  |  Frontier and Pioneer Life