Memorable Manitobans: Ludwig Benjamin Gusdal (1886-1967)

Implement dealer, farmer.

Born at Benson, Minnesota on 10 December 1886, son of Norwegian immigrants Matthias and Martha Gusdal, he attended public and high schools at Benson. He later studied at the seminary at Wilmar, Minnesota. Seeking to become a farmer, he took a train to Winnipeg in May 1905 and, from there, went on to Minnedosa and walked to a homestead in the vicinity of Erickson. Initially a mixed farmer, in the late 1930s, he began to specialize in seed grain production.

On 18 November 1916, he married Nellie Hall, daughter of Swedish immigrants at Danvers. For three years after their marriage, the couple lived at Erickson, where Ludwig worked as an implement dealer for the International Harvester Company, before returning to the farm. He served as secretary of the local United Grain Growers in 1908, later becoming its president, and he was a director of a local cooperative elevator company that was sold to the Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1924. He was a councillor in the Rural Municipality of Harrison. He was one of the first to establish a cottage on the shores of Clear Lake, which later became part of Riding Mountain National Park.

The Gusdal family comprised two sons, Leonard Gusdal and Delmar Gusdal, and two daughters, Martha Gusdal and Lenore Gusdal (wife of Walter Gilbert Dinsdale).

He died on 20 January 1967 near Windsor, Ontario while enroute to visit his daughter in Ottawa.

Source:

Pioneers of Manitoba by Robert Harvey (1970).

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 14 October 2008

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