Knud Magnus Wefald was born in Yttre Vefald, Drangedal, in Kragerø, Telemark county, Norway. He attended the local schools and high school of his native land. He immigrated to the United States in 1887 and in 1896 settled in Hawley, Clay County, Minnesota, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits while managing a partly owned lumber business.
Wefald edited a Norwegian-language newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota from 1929 to 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, October 25, 1936.[1][2]
Papers of Knud Wefald are in the collections of the Norwegian-American Historical Association 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 during his tenure in the House of Representatives.[3]
References
^Congressman Knud Wefald: A Minnesota Voice for Farm Parity by Jon M. Wefald, Minnesota History 38 (December 1962): 177-85
^Wefald, Knud Magnus (Minnesota Legislators Past and Present. Minnesota State Legislature) [1]
^Wefald, Knut (From the Archives by Charlotte Jacobson. NAHA. Volume 31: Page 317) [2]