Joseph and Olive Asbjornson pose with their oldest daughter, Sigridur, born in 1876. Known as Hannah in the United States, she married George Lhamon and died in Portland, Oregon.

Joseph and Olive Asbjornson pose with their oldest daughter, Sigridur, born in 1876. Known as Hannah in the United States, she married George Lhamon and died in Portland, Oregon.

The Asbjornson family traces its roots to the small coastal village of Vopnafjör∂ur in the Northern Mulasysla region of Iceland. Overpopulation and the devastation wrought by the eruption of the Askja volcano in 1875 led many Icelanders to sail for foreign shores in the late 19th century. Among those seeking a new life were Josep and Olof Asbjornsson who left their farm in Iceland for the New World in 1879.

Eight members of the Asbjornsson family sailed across the North Atlantic and down the Saint Lawrence River, landing in Quebec on July 19, 1879. The Asbjornssons banded with 20 other Icelandic families and travelled to Lincoln County, Minnesota, where the U.S. government was still offering land for homesteading. Josep and Olof settled in Limestone Township and changed their names to Joseph and Olive Asbjornson. By 1885, Joseph and his brother Bjorn had earned their homestead claims.

 

Joseph's son Oscar married Thora Strand at St. Paul's Icelandic Lutheran Church in Minneota, Minnesota, on June 8, 1910. The couple gave birth to their first child, Julian "Boots" Asbjornson, on January 18, 1911, followed by a daughter, Margaret in 1912. Heeding the call of his father's homesteading past, Oscar moved his young family 800 miles west in March 1913. He staked a 200-acre claim near the terminus of the Milwaukee Road rail line in the newly founded town of Winifred, Montana.

 

 
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