HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, VOL. II, 1918, page 441

Nels E. Brunsvold, Fertile township, is the owner of one of the best improved farms in the township. He was born in Norway on the 24th of November, 1865, his parents being Erick 0. and Margaret (Nordhagen) Brunsvold, who crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1866. They spent their first summer in this country in Dane county, Wisconsin, and then removed to Iowa, taking up their abode in Winneshiek county, where they resided for four years. On the expiration of that period they came to Worth county and established their home on a quarter section of land on section 12, Fertile township, which the father purchased from the government. To the development and improvement of that property Erick 0. Brunsvold gave his attention and energies for a number of years or until 1888, when he removed to a farm of two hundred and forty acres on section 2, Fertile township, and thereon resided to the time of his demise, which occurred in 1914. He had been actively identified with the agricultural development of Worth county for more than four decades, and in his passing the community mourned the loss of one of its respected and representative citizens. Mrs. Brunsvold was called to the home beyond in 1906.

Nels E. Brunsvold, who was brought to the new world by his parents in infancy, acquired a common school education in his youth and assisted his father in the work of the fields until he had attained his twenty-fifth year. He then began farming independently and for three years cultivated rented land but in 1893 purchased from his father his present place on section 12, Fertile township, being actively and successfully engaged in its operation for a number of years. It was in 1910 that he removed to Hannaford, Griggs county, North Dakota, where he embarked in the farm implement and furniture business and was thus identified with commercial pursuits for about five years. At the end of that time he returned to his farm in Worth county, upon the further development and improvement of which he has since concentrated his time and efforts. The property presents a most neat and thrifty appearance and the well tilled fields annually yield golden harvests as a reward for the care and labor bestowed upon them.

On June 30, 1896, Mr. Brunsvold was united in marriage to Miss Thea Kittelson, of Fertile township, who is a native of Dane county, Wisconsin. To them have been born five children, four of whom still survive, namely: Norma Theresa, who is in her senior year at the Iowa State Teachers' College of Cedar Falls; Hazel Marion, a high school pupil; Earling Stanley, who is still in the grades; and Marjorie Leona, also attending school. All are being given excellent educational advantages in preparation for life's practical and responsible duties.

In politics Mr. Brunsvold is a stanch republican and at the present time is ably serving as a member of the school board. He is a public-spirited, progressive and enterprising citizen whose aid and cooperation can ever be counted upon to further plans and measures instituted to advance the general welfare. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Norwegian Lutheran church, to which his wife and children also belong. They are widely and favorably known and Mr. Brunsvold has long been numbered among the prosperous and leading citizens of the community in which the greater part of his life has been spent.

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Transcribed by Gordon Felland - July 2005