Oscar Tønsberg bought the farmstead from his father-in-law Sivert Nielsen who at one point was the president of the Norwegian parliament. As well as managing the farm Mr Tønsberg also was a merchant running a chandlery. For a while he edited the local newspaper Nordlandsposten and chaired Bodin District Council's committee for the relief of the poor and destitute. The architect August Nielsen (1877-1956) who designed the house in 1906, was the brother of Mr Tønsberg's wife.