Halvor's story, though more eventful than most, is representative of those of many hardworking Norwegian immigrants to the American midwest in the later 19th. century. He immigrated with family members when he was 35 years old. They traveled from Christiana (Oslo) Norway on 13 July 1870, in the steamship Hero (Wilson Line), to Kingston-upon-Hull - destination: Arena, Wisconsin. The fare for each family was 52.24 speciedaler (about $40); they then went overland to Liverpool and then to Quebec (arriving July 31)on the S.S. Nestorian. Halvor's and his father's families were in Arena WI by 20 Aug. 1870, when the federal Census was taken; by 1875, he was renting a farm in the Beef River area of Sumner Township, Trempealeau, WI. He became a naturalized citizen on 4 June 1885 in Whitehall, WI. In 1889, Halvor and his family moved to North Dakota.

They arrived just before ND became a state on Nov. 2. Halvor bought 155 acres south of the town of Wishek in 1892. They built a sod house. This was the homestead, about 5 miles east of the land purchased in 1892, for which he applied in 1896 and was approved 22 April 1901 - in Sect. 25 of Moscow Twnsp. In 1895, Halvor defaulted on his mortgage and was foreclosed on, but he bought the land back the next year in a sheriff's auction.

By May 1899, his family are in Township 131, McIntosh, ND. The 1900 census indicates he had 6 living children but only 2 remain at home that year. By 1905, he had moved again, to Bromhead, Saskatchewan, Canada. He had left his wife and ND behind to take up new homestead. His son Kristian had gone here a few years earlier; Halvor's wife Nellie stayed in ND near her sons John, Albert, and Charles.

In Canada's 1911 census, Halvor is widowered, living with the family of his son Charles (Karl) in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan. He died in August 1915 and is buried in Salem Lutheran Cemetery, 4 mi s.e. of his farm, in Torquay, Weyburn Census Division, Saskatchewan, Canada; his homestead was sold in 1918.

Note: Halvor's birth name was Halvor Christiansen (Halvor, son of Christian) and in Amercia he used the name Halvor C (Christian) Johnson. He was born on Vermuden Farm in Hof Parish, Norway.