Torkel Jonsrud

You don’t really know Sandy or Mt.Hood until you’ve seen the panorama from Jonsrud Viewpoint on Bluff Road, just down the way from Jonsrud Lane. Phil Jonsrud has left his stamp on the Sandy Historical Society and Museum, with his Buckboard Tales and the Jonsrud Memorial Library. But how much do we really know about Phil’s grandfather, Sandy patriarch Torkel Jonsrud?

   Torkel Gulbrandsen Johnsrud was born March 20, 1835, in Christina, Viker, Adalen, on the Strandjet Farm in Buskerud Country, Norway, the son of Gulbrand Torkelson Johnsurd and Gjerturd Gulbrandsdotter Johnsrud. In 1854 he came to Minnesota with his parents and married Kari Amberson in Albert Lea, Minnesota, nine years later in 1863.

 Also in 1863 the Adjutant General of the Minnesota Volunteers listed Torkel as a Captain in the 18th Regiment. In that same year the record of the special laws of the state of Minnesota declare that his name was legally changed from Thomas Gilberston to Yorkel Johnsrud. Perhaps when he had immigrated, someone thought it would be a good idea to anglicize his name, and now he wanted to change it back, to reflect his heritage.

 But some record-keeper had misspelled his name, so those same special laws in 1882 made the correction, so that “that part of section one (1) of chapter sixty two (62) of the special laws of 1863, relating to the change of the name of Thomas Gilberston to Yorkel G. Jonsrud, be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read Torkel G. Jonsrud, in place of Yorkel G. Jonsrud, Henceforth, all acts, and deeds and conveyances hitherto made by the said Yorkel G. Jonsrud by the name of Torkel G. Jonsrud are hereby legalized and confirmed.

 Torkel (evidently under the legal name of Yorkel) served as a senator during the early 1870s in the Minnesota legislature, as did two brothers after him. That legalized name correction was important, because in 1877 Torkel, Kari, and their five children had moved to Oregon, settling in what is now the Kelso area. Torkel became a justice of the peace (a Minnesota state senator might be called Yorkel, but not an Oregon Justice of the peace!)

 Because of his legal training and the lack of attorneys in the area, he was able to help his neighbors with deeds and legal work, perform marriages, and even as an arbitrator in settling local disputes. He was instrumental in starting Kelso School District No.19, at first called the High Forest School, and his daughter-in-law Tillie Olson was one of the early teachers in the one-room log schoolhouse.

Torkel Jonsrud died at the age of 90 November 22, 1925, leaving behind a tribe of Jonsruds who continue to leave their mark on Oregon’s ongoing history.