The Anton Christopherson Family

Anton and Ella (Johnson) Christopherson came to Griggs County, North Dakota after they were married in Cashton, Wisconsin on March 22, 1901.

They purchased a farm about four miles South of Sutton from John Stering.  The homestead papers were signed by President William McKinley, and are now in the Griggs County Historical Museum at Cooperstown, North Dakota

There were five children in the family: 

Gilmer, Theodore, Earl, Selma and Clifford.  Theodore died in infancy and Gilmer in 1971.  Gilmer and Earl attended country school until the consolidated school was built in Sutton, in 1915.  This comprised Mabel Township and one-half of Kingsley Township.  Gilmer and Earl did not get to finish High School, as they were needed to work on the farm.  Sutton High School had only three years of High School at that time so Selma and Clifford took their Senior year of High School in Cooperstown and graduated there.

The Christophersons were members of Mabel Lutheran Church, which was next to their farm.  They were also caretakers until the Church burned on April 12, 1926.  A new church was then built in Sutton.

They resided on the farm until the fall of 1932.  Ella had died in 1931.  Anton and daughter Selma then went to Cashton, Wisconsin to live with Mrs. Thea Johnson, Ella's mother.  Anton died in 1938.  He, his wife and Theodore are buried in Mabel Lutheran Cemetery near the farm where they lived.

Gilmer married Mabel Falle and they farmed near Mose, North Dakota until her death in 1931.  In 1935 Gilmer married Mabel Monson.  They lived in Cooperstown, North Dakota until about 1940 when they moved to Minot, North Dakota

Earl served about four years in the military service in World War II - 1941-1945 of which twenty-eight months were served overseas.  Earl married Mae Dyson in 1952.  They resided in California where she died in the early sixties.  In the fall of 1963 he married Myrtle Gryde who died in 1974.

Selma resided in Cashton until after the death of her Grandmother in 1941.  She then moved to Sparta, Wisconsin.  In 1945 she married G. Harold Backenstoe and they made their home in Sparta.  They had no family.

Clifford married Thelma Finstuen from Binford, North Dakota in 1940.

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 356