Knute Traefald 1860-1948

TRAEFALD, ROCKNE, KNUTSON, ERICKSON, FISHER

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 7/9/2013 at 21:50:09

Knute Traefald
Knute Traefald, father of Mrs. C.A. Knutson of Estherville, was born Sept. 18, 1860 in Vos, Norway. Together with his parents and one brother he came to the United States by sailboat in 1856. The family lived near Decorah four years before journeying by covered wagon to Lamberton, Minn. Later they moved to the Ryan lake district in Emmet county. Knute’s father donated for church use the land on which Ryan Lake Immanuel church now stands.

November 27, 1884 he married Martha Rockne of Wallingford. They lived in Lamberton two years before returning to the Ryan lake neighborhood.

Traefalds moved in 1913 to Kanabec county, Minn., for seven years, moving in 1920 to Wallingford and returning in 1925 to Kanabec county where they resided until Knute’s death Oct. 23, 1948.

Survivors in addition to his wife are two daughters Mrs. C.A. Knutson of Estherville, and Mrs. Rudolph Erickson of Mora, Minn. and two sons Bert of Minneapolis and Clarence of Grand Forks, N.D. and a sister, Mrs. Lena Fisher of Wallingford. A son, Oscar and four daughters preceded him in death.

Services were held in Mora, Oct. 26, with burial in Oakhill cemetery there. Estherville friends and relatives attending were Mr. and Mrs. Walter Theil, Mrs. Cora Ellis, Mrs. Louis Isakson, Mrs. C.A. Knutson, Mrs. David Norman, L.B. Rockne, Obet, Elmer and Kirt Rockne, and Albert Traefald. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, November 23, 1948)