Knud Wefald was a United States Representative in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 from Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

.

Background

Knud Magnus Wefald was born in Yttre Vefald, Drangedal, in Kragerø

Kragerø

is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vestmar. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kragerø....

, Telemark

Telemark

is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...

 county, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. He attended the local schools and high school of his native land. He immigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1887 and in 1896 settled in Hawley

Hawley, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,882 people, 744 households, and 514 families residing in the city. The population density was 764.8 people per square mile . There were 787 housing units at an average density of 319.8 per square mile...

, Clay County, Minnesota

Clay County, Minnesota

Clay County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 58,999. Its name is in honor of American statesman Henry Clay, member of the United States Senate from Kentucky and United States Secretary of State in the 19th century. Its county seat is Moorhead...

 where he engaged in agricultural pursuits while managing a partly owned lumber business.

Career

As a member of the village council of Hawley he served as council president in 1907 – 1912, 1917, and 1918 before becoming a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives

Minnesota House of Representatives

The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house in the Minnesota State Legislature. There are 134 members elected to two-year terms, twice the number of members in the Minnesota Senate. Each senate district is divided in half and given the suffix A or B...

 1913 – 1915. Subsequently, Wefald was elected on the Farmer-Labor ticket to the 68th

68th United States Congress

The Sixty-eighth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1923 to March 4, 1925, during the last months of...

 and 69th congresses

69th United States Congress

The Sixty-ninth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1925 to March 4, 1927, during the third and fourth...

 (March 4, 1923 – March 3, 1927) from Minnesota's 9th congressional district

Minnesota's 9th congressional district

Minnesota's 9th congressional district is a now-obsolete district for representation in the United States House of Representatives.It existed from 1903 to 1963.-List of representatives:-References:*...

. After an unsuccessful campaign for reelection in 1926 to the 70th congress he resumed his former business pursuits. Wefald edited a Norwegian language newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota

Fargo, North Dakota

Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...

, 1929 – 1931 and was executive secretary of the commission of administration and finance of Minnesota in 1931 and 1932. Finally, he served as railroad and warehouse commissioner of Minnesota from January 1933 until his death in Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

, October 25, 1936.

Papers of Knud Wefald are in the collections of the Norwegian-American Historical Association

Norwegian-American Historical Association

Norwegian-American Historical Association publishes scholarly books, documenting research and interpretations of the American experience of immigrant Norwegians....

 Archives. Included are an account from 1903 concerning a trip to Norway, poems that he wrote in both Norwegian and English, and extracts from the Congressional Record

Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...

during his term in the United States House of Representatives.

Other sources