Otto A. Bjornstad

BJORNSTAD, TINDALL

Posted By: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 10/20/2010 at 15:33:06

An enumeration of the progressive and successful business men of northwestern Iowa, who have won recognition for themselves and at the same time have conferred honor on their respective localities, would be incomplete were there failure to make specific mention of Otto Andreas Bjornstad, of Spencer, Clay county, president of the Otto A. Bjornstad Company, druggists, and vice-president of the First National Bank of that city. He enjoys prestige in commercial circles, being distinctively a man of affairs, and has wielded a potent influence for the upbuilding and prosperity of his county for many years.

Mr. Bjornstad was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 4, 1878, and is a son of Bjorn and Anna C. Bjornstad. His parents were natives of Trondhjem, Norway, where the father was born July 21, 1851, and the mother July 2, 1854. The paternal grandfather was the owner of two estates in his native land and had served as sheriff, while the maternal grandfather, who was a pharmacist in Norway, came to the United States and settled in Clay county, Iowa, in 1871.

When Otto A. Bjornstad was about three years of age the family came to Spencer, Iowa, and in the public schools of this city he secured his education, graduating from high school. When fifteen years of age he went to work in the drug store of George D. Cottrell, with whom he remained six years, and at the age of eighteen was a registered pharmacist. On February 11, 1900, when twenty-one years of age, he engaged in the drug business under the name of the Otto A. Bjornstad Company, which is still in operation, and during the years he has enjoyed a large and steadily growing business. He carries a full line of drugs and standard proprietary remedies, and a well-selected stock of such sundries and auxiliary lines as are usually found in an up-to-date drug store. Courtesy, efficiency and promptness have been business principles on which he has built up his business and he has long been regarded as one of Spencer's leading merchants. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Spencer and became vice-president of that institution on June 1, 1923, being also a member of the board of directors.

On June 10, 1903, at Spencer, Mr. Bjornstad was united in marriage to Miss Elia Janet Tindall, who was born December, 10, 1879, at Homer, Illinois. She is descended on the paternal side from old Eastern Yankee stock, while on the maternal side she is English. Her father, J. Tindall, was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, April 10, 1840, and died August 30, 1925, while her mother, who was born at Lynnville, Illinois, November 10, 1843, is still living, at the age of eighty-three years, and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Bjornstad. Mr. and Mrs. Bjornstad have two children, Janet Marie, who is a student in Minnesota State University, and Otto A., Jr., who is attending the public schools in Spencer.

Politically Mr. Bjornstad has always given his support to the republican party and has been active in local public affairs, having served four years as chairman of the republican county central committee, of which he is still a member. He served two terms as a member of the Spencer city council and has been park commissioner of this city since the inception of the commission. He is a director and ex-president of the Spencer Commercial Club and the Iowa director of the Atlantic, Yellowstone and Pacific National Highway Association, belonging also to the West Okoboji Golf and Country Club and the Spencer Golf and Country Club. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in which he had taken all the degrees of the York Rite, and also belongs to the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the First Congregational church of Spencer, of which he is a trustee. Mr. Bjornstad has been loyal and true in every relation of life, has been an earnest supporter of every movement for the betterment of his community along either material, civic or moral lines, and is eminently deserving of the high place which he holds among his fellowmen.

Contributed by: Debbie Clough Gerischer. Source: NORTHWESTERN IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION, VOLUME III, 1804-1926.