"History of Cottonwood and Watonwan Counties of Minnesota, 1916"



A well-known and popular traveling salesman of St. James, Watonwan county, is O. A. Otesa, who was born in Norway, August 17, 1865. He is a son of A. and Hester Otesa, both natives of Norway, where they spent their lives, the mother dying in 1890 and the father in 1903.

O. A. Otesa spent his boyhood in Norway and there received his education in the common schools. In 1882 he came to America, locating in St. James, Minnesota. He secured employment as clerk in the store of G. H. Herrick, who is now deceased, remaining with him about two years, after which he was employed at the Park Hotel for about six years. He finally purchased four hundred and eighty acres of land. He engaged in the real-estate business several years, was also proprietor of the Boston Hotel for a short time, then lived on his farm in Nelson township for about three years. In the spring of 1912 he moved back to St. James and since then has teen traveling salesman for the St. James Milling Company, and has been very successful, greatly increasing the company's business. He owns a fine residence in St. James.

Mr. Otesa was married on September 20, 1889, to Mary Nymon, who John Gjertson, a well-to-do farmer of Madelia township, Watonwan county, proprietor of a farm of two hundred acres situated on the state road three miles due north of the city of Madelia, is a native of Watonwan county, born on the homestead farm which he now owns and where he still lives, March 26, 1875, son of Andrew and Petronella (England) Gjertson, natives of Norway, who were among the best-known and most influential of the pioneers of that part of the county.

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