BRYNJULF STENSAAS FAMILY

My father, Brynjulf Stensaas, together with two or three other men walked from Junction City along the Republican to a place about three miles southeast of what is now Norway Village where they were at liberty to choose their homesteads.  Father selected an "L" shaped quarter.  Just west and northwest of it Mr. Tiller and Mr. Rimol had selected theirs in Section 27.

Father's quarter was on a small creek in which there was running water.  At the top of the west creek bank he built a small dugout, in which my two brothers, Mikkel and John, were born.  I think I was born in the natural stone house build nearby.  I can remember when the house was plastered, but that is as far back as my memory goes.

My parents were betrothed before coming to this country and were married in 1869 or 1870.  Father was a carpenter and farmer and lived just a half mile east of what was 93 school house.  He was treasurer of the district for many years.  My parents both belonged to the Lutheran Church in Norway.

Cancer took my wife in 1957.  My older daughter, Mrs. Carl Larson, is the wife of one of the five men in charge of the D-X Sun Ray Oil Co.  They live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  My younger daughter, Mrs. Edwin Gusensius, lives in Lindsborg where her husband teaches chemistry at Bethany College.  All of his work, both oral and written, at Kansas State has been finished for his Ph. D. degree.  He plans to do some research work this summer (1961).  Our son, Dr. Carl Stensaas, lives in Arkansas City, Kansas where he has practiced medicine for fifteen years.

Jens Stensaas      

Lindsborg, Kansas