Oscar Justin Ellingson

Rostad, Bekken, Ellingson, Erickson Family History, 1972, by Alice Rostad Erickson & C. Eddy Erickson, p 42:

Oscar Ellingson was born November 15, 1881, at Melville, Montana, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ellingson. Oscar is believed to have been the first white child born in that area.

He attended the Melville schools and in 1898 went to Moorhead, Minnesota, to attend Concordia College, graduating from there in 1902. At commencement time in 1957, he was honored as one ofthe college's oldest living graduates.

After graduating from Concordia, he went to Minneapolis and in 1903 started working there as an office manager. It was here that he met his future wife, Louise Cairns, who was then a nurse in a Minneapolis hospital. They were married April 25, 1906, and continued residing in Minneapolis until 1914. Mr. Ellingson came to Livingston, Montana in the summer of 1914 and was joined there by Mrs. Ellingson at Christmas time. They lived in Livingston until May 4, 1917, when they moved to Big Timber, where they lived out the rest of their lives.

In Big Timber, Mr. Ellingson worked with his father and older brother, Edwin, operating the Motor Inn Automobile and garage business there. In later years, he was proprietor of the O. J. Ellingson appliance store, selling out that business early in 1958.

Mr. Ellingson was a member of the Big Timber Lutheran Church, the Sweet Grass Pioneer Society, Doric Lodge No. 53, A.F. and A.M., Macabee Lodge of the Scottish Rite Bodies in Livingston Al Bedoo Temple in Billings and was a member of the Shrine Band of Billings.