Representative Lars Olson Wigdahl View All Years

HONORABLE LARS O. WIGDAHL

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character and public service of the Honorable Lars O. Wigdahl, a former member of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh General Assemblies of Iowa, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Lars O. Wigdahl, son of Ole Larson Wigdahl and Bertha Gunderson Wigdahl, was born at Vigsdahl, Stavaanger, Norway, December 7, 1856. He finished grade school in Norway. In the spring of 1880 the Wigdahl family came to the United States and located in Columbia county, Wisconsin.

In 1883 he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Osterhus. That year he took up the study of theology at Augsburg Evangelical Lutheran seminary in Minneapolis, having previously studied for three years at the Hauges Evangelical Lutheran seminary at Red Wing, Minnesota. In 1887 he was ordained as a minister of the Lutheran church and shortly afterwards was named pastor of the Zion Lutheran church at Ruthven, Iowa. In early days he served pastorates at Fort Dodge, Milford, Sanborn, Cylinder, Little Sioux and Emmetsburg.

Reverend Wigdahl’s interests were not limited to church affairs. He was a firm believer in good government and progressive citizenship. He served for two terms in an able manner as representative from Palo Alto county. Here as in all his activities he could be depended upon to act justly and conscientiously in any legislation that came to his attention. His record in the Iowa legislature is one that his family and his Palo Alto constituents can review with pride.

Reverend Wigdahl was one of the staunch defenders and one of the oldest preachers of the church of which he was a minister. He was interested in the fundamentals of the Christian religion and his mind delved deeply into its truths and the correct interpretation of it. For over a half century the members of his congregation found him ever solicitous of their spiritual interests. Many were the occasions when this solicitude was evidenced even into their material welfare.

Lars O. Wigdahl passed away at his home at Ruthven, Iowa, June 18, 1938, following an illness of several months’ duration. The funeral was held at Ruthven Monday afternoon, June 20th. Services were conducted in the Zion Lutheran Church by the Rev. T. J. Wicks, Reverand Wigdahl’s successor. Interment was in the Ruthven cemetery. The funeral procession was one of the largest ever witnessed in Ruthven. Surviving are six sons and three daughters. Mrs. Wigdahl passed away in January, 1939. The sons are Rev. L. O. Wigdahl, of Mason City, Iowa; L. J., S. A., L. D., and H. A. Wigdahl, all of Ruthven, Iowa, and C. B. Wigdahl, of Emmetsburg. The daughters are Mrs. L. M. Hadley and Miss Elizabeth Wigdahl, of Ruthven, and Miss Alma Wigdahl, of Flandreau, South Dakota. A son, Dr. A. L. Wigdahl, passed away six years ago.

The sudden removal of such a life from our midst a life of absolute trust and assurance; a believer and promoter of the great essentials of truth, honesty and sincerity, leaves a vacancy and a shadow that is deeply realized by all and has proven to be a serious loss to the community and the public.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth General Assembly of the State of Iowa in regular session, That in the death of Lars O. Wigdahl the people of Palo Alto county and of the entire state of Iowa have sustained a great loss. He was a man who occupied an envious position in the hearts of all who knew him and loved him for his genuine worth; a man whose wide influence was at all times exercised for the good of humanity.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

GEO. H. KEENEY,

ARCH W. MCFARLANE,

A. H. AVERY,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 12, 1939.