Christian (C. J. ) Erlandson was born in Guldbrandsdalen, Norway, December 22, 1862. He was two and one half years old when his parents, Karen and Johannes Erlandson Slette came to America. They spent six weeks crossing the Atlantic on a sailing vessel. During the trip the family's meals consisted of cheese, flat bread and dried beef, which they had brought along in a trunk.
They settled near Coon Valley, Vernon County, Wisconsin in a colorful setting of hills, trees and bluffs, which reminded them of their homeland.
When Christ became a young man he decided to work. During the summer he worked on a farm. It was there that he met his future bride, Agnetta Komprud.
In 1886 he came to North Dakota and homesteaded on the NW quarter of Section 26 in Mable Township. Later he bought two quarters from the railroad. In 1888 Agnetta Komprud came to North Dakota and she and Christ were married in Cooperstown.
Christ enlarged the homestead shanty by adding on a lean-to which served as a bedroom, and an entry shed to help keep out the cold winter winds. Many times after a heavy snowstorm a snow bank would cover the shanty, leaving only the stovepipe visible. Christ built the door on the entry shed to open inward so that he would always be able to tunnel out of the snowbank.
In 1898 Christ built a two-story house and a year later he built a barn. The shanty became a blacksmith shop a few years later, enabling Christ to sharpen his own plowshares, as well as the neighbor's.
In the late 1880's and early 1890's times were hard and Christ didn't have much land broke up so he decided to take a job selling "Watkins Products." He traveled by horse and buggy, house to house, covering Stutsman, Foster, Eddy, Wells and Nelson Counties. In the early 1900's he became tired of traveling and so he bought a steam-threshing outfit and threshed for neighbors for a number of years.
Over the years he acquired other land holdings north of Warwick and west of Minot. In 1905 he bought his first car, a "Rambler," from King-Bruns Company at Cooperstown.
He and one other, a Larson from Binford, started the Farmers Bank in Sutton. The bank closed in 1926.
Christ and Agnetta Erlandson were charter members of Mable Lutheran Church. He served on the Church, School and Township boards.
Christ and Agnetta had four children:
Josephine, Alfred, Mabel (who passed away at the age of 2 years 3 months) and Amanda.
Agnetta Erlandson died in 1940 and Christ in 1941.
Alfred took over the farming operation in 1911. In 1913 he married Alice Posey. They moved a schoolhouse onto the farmstead and remodeled it into the home in which they are still living.
Alfred's son, Ivan, started farming in partnership with his father in 1937 and he too is still on the home farm. He built his house on the site where his grandfather, Christ, had built his house some 65 years earlier.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 357