Jesper Taxdahl was born May 10, 1872, near Stavanger, Norway, (Thime sogn). His parents were Jonas and Anna Taksdahl. He had one sister Anna Taxdahl Berntsen and three brothers, Arm, Ole and Jonas.
He came to America, going first to South Dakota, where there were relatives and friends from Norway who had arrived at an earlier date. Here he worked on farms near Hetland and DeSmet, South Dakota. In 1898 he, together with Carl Helland and Maria Helland traveled by covered wagon and horse team to Griggs County, North Dakota. Here too, he hired out as a farm laborer, working for Edward Michaelis, Peter Larson and Elling Johnson. Ole and Jonas remained in Norway.
On December 12, 1900 he married Aagot Johnson at Cooperstown, North Dakota. There were seven children in the family
Ernest Taxdahl, Neva Taxdahl, Myrtle Taxdahl, Hilda Taxdahl Selness, Albert Taxdahl, Judith Taxdahl Watne and Orville Taxdahl.
They farmed for many years first in Sverdrup Township and later in Helena Township near Revere, North Dakota where he lived until his death on January 28, 1956 at Griggs County Hospital. He was preceded in death by his wife and one daughter, Myrtle.
Mrs. Taxdahl was also born near Stavanger, Norway, (Thime sogn). She came to America together with her parents, Elling and Martha Dorthea Froiland (name later changed to Johnson), when she was four years old. Others who came at this time were Omund Ashland and Dorthea Ashland, Mrs. Froiland's children with her first marriage to Aadne Ashland. Christopher Ashland, Maria Ashland Herigstad and Serina Ashland had arrived in this country earlier.
The family lived first in Minnesota, near Granite Falls, coming to Griggs County, North Dakota in 1883. They traveled by covered wagon and ox team, which took them three weeks. Others in the party were one brother, Omund Ashland and three sisters, Dorthea Ashland, Ingeborg Froiland and Amelia Froiland. One sister, Inga, had died on the voyage across the ocean. Another sister Mrs. Ole Gabriel Kverneland remained in Norway. A brother Hans Froiland, the youngest in the family, was born at the homestead in Ball Hill Township, near Cooperstown, where Mr. and Mrs. Steffen Froiland and daughter Melissa now reside.
Mrs. Taxdahl died April 25, 1949 at St. Lukes Hospital, Fargo, North Dakota.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 441