Gustavus O. Bolkan
Gustavus O. Bolkan was born on 6 March 1889 in Griggs County, North Dakota, in the Sheyenne valley near Cooperstown. His father, Ole P. Bolkan, had come from Stjørdal in Norway as a boy of seventeen in 1866 and had taken land in Dakota Territory in the 1880s. His mother, Mary E. Evarts, was from New York. He was named for his father's youngest brother, Gustav Peter Bolkan of Kensett, Iowa. A sister, Angeline, followed, and his grandmother Anne Bolkan lived in the house in her last years. Three of his father's brothers had farms in Griggs and Traill Counties, and his uncle Christopher Bolkan sat in North Dakota's first legislature, so Gustavus grew up with more than forty first cousins within a day's drive.
In 1900 and 1910 he was at home with his parents in Broadview and Sverdrup Townships. He registered for the draft in 1917 or 1918 at Griggs County, giving his birth as 6 March 1889 at Sverdrup. On 10 August 1916 he married Mary Ethel Parfit, a daughter of Ira Allen Parfit of Stutsman County, and the date was cut on their stone. They farmed at Sverdrup, and nine children were born in Griggs County between 1919 and 1935: Mildred Zylpha, Eunice, Selmar Allen, Floyd Elton, Lois, Vern Gus, Iola, Beulah and Robert Owen. A tenth, Lynn D., was born in Oregon about 1939. In 1930 the household at Sverdrup was Gustavus, 40, Ethel, 30, and six children aged 1 to 11.
The family was still in rural Griggs County in 1935 and in Clackamas County, Oregon, by April 1940, farming in the Needy precinct south of Oregon City with nine children at home. Gustavus registered again for the draft in 1942 at Oregon City, aged 53. They settled at Redland, east of Oregon City, and his son Floyd gave Redland as his address when he registered that December.
Mary died on 18 August 1956. Gustavus died in Clackamas County in 1962 or 1963; the death index gives 1962, the stone 1963. He was buried beside her at Redland Pioneer Cemetery under one granite stone: Bolkan, Gustavus O. 1889-1963, Married Aug. 10 1916, Mary Ethel 1899-1956. His sons Selmar, Vern and Robert and his daughter Eunice lie in the same county.
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Researched October 2026. Cite: Heirology, "Gustavus O. Bolkan (1889-1963)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/gustavus-o-bolkan-1889-1963-14a31a.