This is the story of Gustav and Elting, two brothers who walked and worked together all their lives. They married half sisters, Karine (Kaia) Knutsen and Regina Olsen from Haugesund, Norway. Their children were brought up almost like brothers and sisters.
Gustav Martin Aarestad was only 13 months old when he and his two-year-old brother, Elling, were brought to Minnesota from the Mysing Parish in Norway in 1870. Their father, Johan Ivarson and mother, Guri Sleveland, with their six children, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and half of the American continent to homestead on a farm in Shelley, Minnesota.
Johan could trace his ancestors in Norway as far back as 1563, and the idea of ever leaving his beloved country was unthinkable. But life does not always go as planned. In the middle 1800s, all of Europe was overcrowded. Three men stood where one had stood only 100 years before. Farmers in Norway, with only 25 percent of its land arable, found it impossible to provide enough land for their children. As a result, it became customary for the oldest son to inherit the land and the younger to receive the equivalent in money.
So younger son, Johan and family tore their roots from the rugged, rocky Norwegian soil and became homesteaders on the fertile land of Minnesota near Shelley.
The Aarestads immediately loved their adopted country. They learned English as a matter of course and soon became respected and productive members of their new community.
Two of their sons, Elting and Gustav, when of age, became homesteaders as well, but soon found farming was not their forte, and when financially able, went to Fargo, North Dakota, to a business college. On their return, they opened a furniture store with Paul Troseth.
The three men prospered but when they heard of greater opportunities in a new town in North Dakota, Hannaford by name, they again pulled up roots and moved with their families to this promising community. Here they opened a hardware store, Aarestad Brothers and Troseth. Later they were to add another store in Grace City and two farms near Hannaford.
The town was young in those days and so were the inhabitants. Their favorite form of entertainment was square dancing at barn dances in the area. These were occasionally varied with costume parties.
World War I found Elting and Gustav too old to fight but they did their part buying and selling war bonds. Rallies were held, flags waved, bands played. Hannaford women brought their children with them to the community hall, rolled bandages, knitted sweaters and socks for their soldier boys, drank coffee and thoroughly enjoyed their efforts.
Gustav's older son, Julius Garfield, 17, nagged his parents into signing permission for him to enlist and was bitterly disappointed when the war ended one month after his enlistment.
According to Ethel Borghild, Gustav's younger daughter, about 1920 the people of Hannaford began to worry that their children were losing their Norwegian culture, so a school was formed in the Lutheran Church to teach the children the Norwegian language. "I can still remember Min Forste Lesebok," laughs Ethel. "It had a picture of a dog in it looking at a turtle and saying, `Ug, ma han ar stuge!' and another of a cat with a mouse in its mouth and someone pointing out that `Min katt har en mus'."
About that time Elling and Gustav retired and moved with their families to Minneapolis. Elling's sons, Selmer and Leonard Orris, became businessmen as did stepson Kenneth. Leonard served his country in the Navy in World War II. All three sons are deceased. Daughter, Lucille Evelyn, married businessman Melvin Johnson. She is now widowed and living in Minneapolis.
Gustav's oldest son, Julius, became a salesman, and younger son, Gilmore Carroll, head of libraries in Great Neck, New York He too, was in the Navy in World War II. Gilmore married a teacher, Maxine Mehne. Older daughter, Myrtle Madelyn, became a law secretary and married a lawyer, E. Harold Hedean. Ethel, the surviving member of the family, became a ghost writer, then an exhibiting artist in Chicago and New York. She now lives with her husband, Walter, a retired advertising executive, in Brownsville, Texas.
The late Elling and Gustav now have about 60 surviving descendants.
Their story is a typical American story. They inherited their feeling for adventure from their parents, Johan and Guri, their ambition and high ideals as well.
Elling Aarrestad was born in Helland, near Egersund, June 15, 1868. Came to America in 1881, to Norman County, Minnesota, together with his father Jonas Aarrestad, and his mother Guri Sleveland, who got her homestead there. Both are now dead. His wife, Regina Olsen, is from Haugesund. They have five children.
Gustav Aarrestad was born in Helland, near Egersund on August 12, 1869. Came to the USA in 1881. To Hannaford in 1903, and has had a hardware and farm machinery business there with Troseth and his brother, Elling Aarrestad. His wife, Karine Knudsen is from Haugesund. They have four children.
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 76
There is no higher form of human courage than that of the man who bravely pushes out to the frontier and grapples resolutely with the many difficulties and uncertainties which must of necessity confront the pioneer. A stout heart is indeed needed to accept the vicissitudes of all kinds which are continually springing up as the new country emerges from its embryonic condition and assumes the garb of civilization. The inclemencies of climate, the unavoidable discomforts, the risks of business in a comparatively new and unknown land have all to be met, and the man who wins out over all these and many other obstacles and holds success with a firm hand is indeed entitled to consideration and praise for his efforts. Such a one is Elling Aarestad, of Hannaford, North Dakota, who in a few years has built up one of the most prosperous mercantile concerns in his part of the state.
Elling Aarestad was born in Norway, Europe, May 20, 1869, his parents Jonas and Guri Sleveland Aarestad being of the same nationality and descent.
He received his earliest education in the excellent educational institutions of his native land, and later on the immigration of the family to the United States, completed his studies in the public schools of Norman County, Minnesota, and in a Minneapolis business college. His early boyhood was spent on the farm in Norway and in Minnesota. At a later period he became a resident of Shelley, Minnesota, where for 20 years he was engaged in farming and the mercantile business. In 1903, he moved to Hannaford, North Dakota, and embarked in the hardware and machinery business. The firm which consists of Elling Aarestad, J. M. Aarestad and Paul Troseth, under the firm name of Aarestad Brothers and Troseth, occupies a large double store building and carries on a lucrative and rapidly increasing business. Mr. Aarestad is also president of the Farmers State Bank, which was organized in 1909, and carries on its business in a new concrete building especially erected for that purpose.
Mr. Aarestad is a widower. He was married in 1898, to Miss Sophia Oien of Shelley, Minnesota, who died, leaving one child, Selmer, now 10 years of age.
In addition to his mercantile and banking business, Mr. Aarestad is the owner of a half section of fine land in the vicinity of Hannaford. Personally he is an example of the best type of the modern businessman, keen and alert, yet withal, accommodating and courteous.
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 77