Moorhead, Minnesota.
was born in Wassau, Wisconsin. His father, Pastor J. C. Monsen, emigrated from Laerdal in Sogn as a six years old boy with his parents to America, but is none the less a "Full blooded" Sogning in spirit and skin, in talk and writing. His mother, Emma T. Johnsen, was born in America of Norwegian parents. Her mother is now 90 years old and is the sister of the reverend old Pastor, Nils Brandt, one of the Norwegian Synod’s Dioceses.
In 1896 his parents came to Kindred, North Dakota where he grew up in the beautifully located Norman Parsonage. He graduated from Luther College in Decorah 1914. As a Member of Luther College Concert Band to visit he Norway in 1914, he was for a part of the week in his father’s hometown and birthplace in Laerdal in Sogn. He worked as an assistant in Kindred High School for one year and then came to Concordia College where he conducted the Concordia College Concert Band and Choir. He studied Music with the Fargo Conservatory as well. He is very gifted musically and will hopefully go on brightly and have a good future and harvest many laurels as a music and choir leader.
Source: Norwegians and Norwegian Homes in America by Hans Jervell - 1916 - Page 11