Dakota Datebook: Gudmundur Grimson Thursday, June 24, 2021

Prairie Public

North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Gudmundur Grimson was born in Iceland in 1878. When he was four, his family of 15 emigrated to Dakota Territory and settled north of Milton, and it was on this date in 1965 that Grimson died. 

When Gudmundur was 9, he started attending classes in a sod-roofed log schoolhouse where others, like him, didn’t yet speak English. After finishing eighth grade, Gudmundur worked as a country schoolteacher until he saved enough to go to UND – $150.

In 1905, Grimson earned a fellowship to study at Chicago University for three terms. In the spring, he returned to Grand Forks, completed his course requirements for a law degree, and began his law practice in Munich, north of Devils Lake. It was there that he got to know a farm family headed by Ben Tabert.

Link to story, part 1: https://news.prairiepublic.org/post/gudmundur-grimson-part-1

Link to story, part 2: https://news.prairiepublic.org/post/gudmundur-grimson-part-2

Link to story, part 3: https://news.prairiepublic.org/post/gudmunder-grimson-part-3