From "Prairie Pioneers: A History of Adams County", 1975.
A transplant to North Dakota from Minnesota, Joris Odin Wigen was for over forty years a figure of distinction in Adams County, first settling there in the mid-1910s. An attorney, banker, and civic leader, Wigen would be elected to terms as Mayor of Hettinger, state representative, state's attorney, and achieved his highest degree of political prominence when he was appointed as a state district court judge. Following retirement, he and his wife removed to Phoenix, Arizona, where he lost his life in a car accident in 1958. The son of Norwegian natives George and Anna (Eggan) Wigen, Joris Odin Wigen was born in Mower County, Minnesota on August 9, 1883.
Wigen's formative years were spent in the county of his birth, where he attended rural schools. He enrolled at the Lutheran College at Jewell, Iowa, and continued his studies at the Redwing Seminary in Redwing, Minnesota. Wanting to pursue a career in law, he entered the University of Minnesota and earned his law degree in 1910. Admitted to the North Dakota bar in December 1910, he would remove to Bucyrus, North Dakota to establish his law practice, and briefly returned to Minnesota to marry on May 31, 1911, to Gea Sether (1884-1985). The couple were wed for nearly fifty years and had four children, Ada Dakota Mae (1912-2009), Sadie (1914-1977), Gea Evelyn (1915-2009), and Joris Odin Jr. (1917-1987).
Within a few years of relocating to Bucyrus Joris Wigen had entered into the town's financial sector, purchasing the Bucyrus State Bank. He would serve as its president until 1917, and by July of the following year had moved to Hettinger, North Dakota, where he became affiliated with the Adams County State Bank. He made his first move into local politics in the 1920s, serving on the Hettinger city council for several years and from 1918-32 was treasurer of the Hettinger School Board.
A youthful Joris O. Wigen, from the 1911 University of Minnesota "Gopher" yearbook.
Joris O. Wigen continued his political ascent in 1928 when he was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives. He would serve two terms (1929-33), and during his last term held the additional role of mayor of Hettinger, his term extending from 1931-34. While serving as a legislator and as mayor, Wigen occupied a third post, that of collector of closed banks from 1931-1939.
Wigen's long residency in Hettinger saw him attain further distinction as a civic leader, being a member of the Hettinger Civic Association from 1924-30, and president of the Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club. Wigen was active in local patriotic drives and in 1940 was director for the Finnish Relief Drive. During WWII he was a booster in "war finance activities", for which he earned two medals, and for thirty-five years served as treasurer for the Hettinger Lutheran Church. On the business front, Wigen was manager of the Adams County Abstract Company from 1937-44 and "was universally recognized as an avid golf enthusiast."
In the early 1940s, Wigen returned to politics with his service as state's attorney for Adams County and was the incumbent in that post when he was appointed by Governor Fred Aandahl as a judge for North Dakota's 6th judicial district in July 1946. He would win a full six-year term of his own on that court in 1948 and was reelected in 1954. He served until his retirement on New Years Day 1958, and soon after resettled in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife.
Just months after his removal to Arizona, Wigen and his wife were involved in a two-car accident in Phoenix on their return from an evening church service. While Gea Wigen and the persons in the other vehicle survived with minor injuries, Wigen himself was fatally injured in the crash, dying on March 26, 1958. Following funeral arrangements, he was returned to North Dakota for burial at the Hauges Cemetery in Jackson County. Gea Wigen survived her husband by nearly thirty years and celebrated her 100th birthday in September 1984. She died on November 23rd of the following year, aged 101, and was interred at the same cemetery as her husband.
From the Arizona Republic, March 27, 1958.
From the 1981 North Dakota Blue Book.
Public service continued in the Wigen family with Joris O. Wigen's youngest child and namesake, Joris Odin Wigen Jr. A resident of North Dakota for nearly his entire life, "Bud" Wigen served as a pilot during the Second World War and later established himself in the insurance business in Bismarck. In 1968 he was elected as North Dakota State Insurance Commissioner, an office he'd be reelected to on two further occasions.
Born on May 5, 1917, in Hettinger, Bud Wigen attended the public schools of that city and in 1939 graduated from St. Olaf's College in Northfield, Minnesota. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Wigen served in Europe during WWII as a pilot, and married on July 4, 1943, to Phyllis Vevle (1920-1997). The couple were wed for over forty years and had three children, Richard, Joan, and Ann.
After his return from service Wigen was affiliated with an insurance company as an adjuster, and later operated an insurance company of his own in Bismarck for eleven years. The succeeding years saw him active in several civic organizations in Bismarck, including the Kiwanis Club(serving as its secretary), the Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee, and was secretary of the Missouri Slope Lutheran Home.
In 1968 Wigen announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for North Dakota State Insurance Commissioner and was elected that November. He would be elected to another four-year term in 1972, and in 1976 was defeated by Democrat Byron Knutson. Knutson, in turn, would be defeated by a returning Wigen in November 1980 and would serve from 1981 until 1985, being succeeded by Earl Pomeroy.
Following his last term as commissioner Wigen and his wife removed to Sun City, Arizona, where he died on May 2, 1987, three days shy of his 70th birthday. He was later returned to North Dakota for interment at the Sunset Memorial Gardens in Bismarck.
From the Mouse River Journal, October 22, 1980.
