Gunnar Björn Björnson

1872 - 1957  (85 years)

• Name	Gunnar Björn Björnson  [1]
  Birth	17 Aug 1872	Mássel, near Sleðbrjótur, Jökulsár district, Nordur Mölasysla, Iceland   [1, 2, 3]
  	Direct quote from Validi's essay: "Mássel, a cotter's farm next to Sleðbrjótur in the Jökulsár district in Nordur Mölasysla"
  Gender	Male
  Immigration	1876	USA   [2]
  	Witness Role: Immigrant: [I418] Gunnar Björn BJÖRNSON
  Occupation	Between 1895 and 1900	Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  	formed a partnership with 22-year-old Stephen T. Westdal
  	formed a partnership with 22-year-old Stephen T. Westdal and purchased The Mascot Witness Role: Principal 2: [I418] Gunnar Björn BJÖRNSON
  Occupation	Between 1900 and 1943	Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  	owner and publisher of the Minneota Mascot
  Marriage Groom	29 Mar 1903	Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  	Witness Role: Principal: [F1014] ...of Gunnar Björn BJÖRNSON and Ingibjörg Augustine JÓNSDÓTTIR Witness Role: Bride: [I4945] Ingibjörg Augustine JÓNSDÓTTIR Witness Role: Groom: [I418] Gunnar Björn BJÖRNSON
  		Afi & Amma Marriage Certificate Media Date: MAR 1903 Keywords: Picture
  		Afi & Amma Wedding Pix (1903) Keywords: Picture
  Occupation	Between 1913 and 1916	Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  	was an elected member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
  Occupation	Between 1939 and 1955  [1]
  	chairman of the Minnesota Board of Tax Appeals
  Death	15 Sep 1957	Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  Burial	17 Sep 1957	St. Paul's Cemetery, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  Anecdote	17 Aug 2025
  	One hundred and fifty-three years ago today, in 1872, my maternal grandfather, Gunnar Bjorn Bjornson - I called him Pa - was born in Vopnafjordur (the Weapon Fjord) on Iceland’s northeast coast. As a four-year-old boy he sailed with his mother, a ‘hired girl’ on a poor farm who was impregnated and abandoned by the owner’s son, to Liverpool and then on to Quebec. Eventually, mother and son made their way to Minneota, MN, a small town in the southwestern part of the state. “Home” was an earthen dougout that sat on the banks of the Yellow Medicine River at the eastern edge of the flat and endless Great Plains. They arrived in Minnesota in early May of 1876 – on June 25th of that year, Custer got his comeuppance in eastern Montana. On August 2nd, Wild Bill Hickok held aces and eights in a saloon in Deadwood, SD, his back to the door. He never saw the man who shot him. And on September 7 of the same year the James Gang, - Jesse, his brother Frank, Cole Younger, his brother and two others- thought that the bank in Northfield, MN would provide easy pickings. It was the end of the James Gang. They were shot to pieces. Jesse escaped. Forty five miles east of Minneota, Cole Younger was captured. He served 25 years in Minnesota’s Stillwater State Penitentiary. Pa, by then a newspaper man, met Cole when he got out, asked him his impressions of life on the outside. “Everything’s changed – automobiles, the telephone, what’s next?” Pa told this, and other stories, to me as a youngster. He died when I was 14. I was a pallbearer. We brought him back to Minneota and laid him in the ground in St. Paul’s Icelandic Lutheran Cemetery - next to a cornfield, a mile from the Yellow Medicine, at the edge of the Great Plains.
  Origins
  Patriarch & Matriarch	Asmundur Hallgrímsson,   b. 1820, Iceland   (Grandfather)  Kristín Benjamímsdóttir,   b. 1837, Iceland d. 1920, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA  (Age 83 years)  (Mother)
  Person ID	I418	Hillbillies & Vikings
  Last Modified	26 Aug 2025

  
  

  Father	Björn Kristinn Anderson,   b. 1850   d. 1889 (Age 39 years) Other Partners: Kristrun
  Relationship	Birth
  Mother	Kristín Benjamímsdóttir,   b. 1837, Iceland d. 1920, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA (Age 83 years)
  Relationship	Birth
  Notes	He never married Kristin, but later married Marriage Status: Unmarried Couple
  Family ID	F1526	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Ingibjörg Augustine Jónsdóttir,   b. 13 Aug 1878, Hóll, Dalasysla, Hörthudalur, Iceland d. 19 Aug 1949, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA (Age 71 years)
  Marriage	29 Mar 1903	Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA   [1]
  	Witness Role: Bride: [I4945] Ingibjörg Augustine JÓNSDÓTTIR Witness Role: Groom: [I418] Gunnar Björn BJÖRNSON
  		Afi & Amma Marriage Certificate Media Date: MAR 1903 Keywords: Picture
  		Afi & Amma Wedding Pix (1903) Keywords: Picture
  Children	+ 1. Edvard Hjálmar Björnson,   b. 18 Mar 1904, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 27 Oct 1958 (Age 54 years) ▻ Ella Martha Jónasson  m. Abt 1930 + 2. Kristjan Valdimar Björnson,   b. 29 Aug 1906, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 10 Mar 1987, United States (Age 80 years) ▻ Guðrun Jónsdottir  m. 20 Feb 1945 + 3. Gunnar Björn Björnson,   b. 23 Jun 1908, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 2 Feb 1994, United States (Age 85 years) ▻ Birgit Nye Jacobson  m. 23 Jul 1945   4. Halldóra Ingibjörg Björnson,   b. 21 Aug 1910, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 20 Jan 1911, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA (Age 0 years) + 5. Helga Sigríður Björnson,   b. 6 Jan 1912, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 28 Jun 1996, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA (Age 84 years) ▻ Arne Brøgger  m. 1935 + 6. Stefania Aðalbjörg Björnson,   b. 28 Dec 1916, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 18 Oct 2008, 60 Eden Place, Athens, Athens, Ohio, USA (Age 91 years)  [Father: Birth]  [Mother: Birth] ▻ Carl Herbert Denbow  m. 5 Jun 1939 + 7. Jón Henrik Björnson,   b. 9 Feb 1919, Minneota, Lyon, Minnesota, USA d. 11 Mar 1999, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA (Age 80 years) ▻ Matthilður Kvaran  m. 8 Mar 1944
  Family ID	F1014	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 Aug 2023

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Crayon Enlargement Afi Keywords: Picture
  		Afi Confirmaton Pix Keywords: Picture
  		Afi at his desk in the legisla Keywords: Picture

  
  

  Headstones		Afi Grave Keywords: Picture
  		Gunnar B. Björnson Tombstone

  
  

  Histories

  Afi's Saga (Autobiography)

  
  

• Reference

  Carl Jón Denbow. (2025, September 17). Gunnar Björn Björnson. Hillbillies & Vikings. Retrieved from https://jonandjohn.org/getperson.php?personID=I418&tree=tree1