Isabella Andersen, 21, is the fifth generation of her family to work with Northwestern State Bank. A century ago, her great-great-grandfather A.J. Andersen joined the bank in its original location in Lockhart, Minnesota; it moved to Ulen in 1941 and has branches in Dilworth, Moorhead, Hendrum, Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls. (Photo/Russ Hanson).
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Exactly 100 years ago, Isabella Andersen’s great-great-grandfather was recruited to run the Bank of Lockhart in a small Norman County town. Joined by his son Arthur, he went on to acquire enough stock 20 years later to have the majority vote. He renamed it Northwestern State Bank and brought it to Ulen.
Today that early decision has become a tradition, not only in Clay County and beyond, but in the family descended from him. This summer, A.J.’s great-great-granddaughter has become the fifth generation to be involved in the family-owned enterprise.
Isabella Andersen, a senior this fall at Concordia College, is getting her first taste of the family business as a marketing intern in the Dilworth branch, now the largest of Northwestern’s five locations. “I’m starting with the basics,” the 21-year-old Moorhead woman explains. For her, that means marketing, graphic design and communications, which she calls her strong suits. Someday, she says, she plans to be involved in the Andersens’ endeavors, perhaps in marketing or as a member of the board of directors, currently chaired by her mother, Elizabeth Andersen.
“It’s a lot,” she admits. “I’m still trying to connect all the pieces.”
Isabella, an English and graphic design major, readily admits, “Numbers are not my strength.” Yet the numbers surrounding Northwestern Bank are impressive. With assets of nearly $160 million, the small town bank grew dramatically under the tenure of her grandparents, James and Fern, and her mother Liz. The first institution in Ulen was joined by the Dilworth branch with the Andersens’ 1987 purchase of Clay County State Bank. Their acquisition of Viking Bank added locations in Moorhead and Hendrum in 2002. Additional branches were added in 2019 in Fergus Falls and Detroit Lakes. John Satrom currently serves as its CEO.
The young woman, though, has a credit on her resume that’s distinctly her own: She has written and published two books and is halfway through her third. Aimed at young people, her “Power of the Gemstones” series embraces the fantasy genre, imagining a world where dragons interact with humans.
“I’ve been a fan of fantasy fiction my whole life,” she explains. “At first I loved reading about dinosaurs, then I transitioned into birds and dragons. Then I got to thinking. What if dragons were still alive and living in our present culture? How would they view humans?” She declines to give away the details, but shares a hint: “They don’t eat them, but they view them as pathetic for destroying their kind and forcing them to live in secret.”
Isabella, an alumna of the Academy for Children and Red River Montessori Academy, started writing her first novel at 13 or 14 while she was being home-schooled. She published it at 16 with the assistance of Beaver Pond Press of Edina. She had just turned 18 when the second was released. Both are under her pen name, Izzyanna Andersen. They can be special-ordered from Barnes and Noble or ordered from her website, www.thepowerofthegemstones.com.
She remains unsure about the direction her future will take. “At first, I wanted to be a paleontologist,” she confides. “Then I thought about an orthodontist. I figured out ‘author’ at 12. But now I’m shifting between being part of the family business and writing books.
“This bank has always felt like home to me,” she muses. “I’ve known so many of these people so long that they feel like a second family.”
Northwestern, she emphasizes, is nothing like the stereotype of a buttoned-up, strictly formal institution. “We want to that friendly bank that’s always part of the community we serve. Our goal is to always make sure we keep our comfortable, small-town atmosphere … a bank that is more humble.”