A P Westberg

WESTBERG

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/11/2009 at 16:27:45

A P Westberg, who resides on Sec 29, Garden township, is one of the worthy citizens that Sweden has furnished to Boone county. His birth occurred July 17, 1840, upon a farm in that kingdom. He was reared there ad in early life also learned the carpenter trade. He has gained a knowledge of the English language since coming to the new world and is largely self-educated in all ways, his school privileges in youth being quite limited. He has however, broadened his knowledge through experience and observation and has a practical mind which is evidenced in his successful control of his business interests. In the year 1866 he determined to seek a home the new world, for he had heard favorable reports of its business opportunities. According he sailed from Gottenborg for Quebec, and thence crossed the Great Lakes to Chicago, afterward spending four months in DeKalb county, Illinois. ON the expiration of that period he came to Iowa, arriving in Boone on Oct 9, 1866. For a time he worked on the Northwestern railroad at Clinton, Iowa being engaged in the bridge building department of that company for nine years. At length with the capital he had saved and which had been acquired through his diligence and economy, he purchased land, becoming the owner of his present farm in 1873 although he did not take up his abode thereon until 1876. There was a small house and some little improvements on the place but the chief work of the cultivation and development has been performed by Mr Westberg. He has erected a large frame residence, good barns and all the necessary outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock. Thrifty trees of his own planting adorn the yard, and an orchard which he has set out yields its fruit in season. He has raised a good grade of shorthorn and Hereford cattle and is now breeding and dealing in pure blooded Aberdeen cattle. As the time has passed and his financial resources have increased he has also purchased more land and now owns a splendidly developed farm of 80 acres on Sec 20, Garden township, in addiction to the home farm of 120 acres on Sec 29, Garden township. Mr Westberg began life in Iowa a very poor boy. He had no assistance and was without capital, but he possessed determination and energy and these are potent elements in winning success. Steadily he worked his way upward and today two rich farms in this great agricultural district are the visible evidences of his life of industry.
Mr Westberg was married in Boone county, Oct 27, 1876 to Miss Anna Lundahl, who was born and reared in Sweden. They now have eight children: Maude, the wife of Samuel Sundberg, a resident farmer of Garden township, Richard who is married and resides in Madrid and was associated with his father in establishing an electric plant in that place in 1899, since which time he has been in control of the business, Ethel the wife of Oscar Westerson, of Madrid, Frank who is assisting his father on the home farm, Esther, Edwin, Blanche and Self, who are still under the parental roof. The parents hold membership in the Swedish Lutheran church of Madrid, ad Mr Westberg has voted with the Republican party since 1872, when he cast his first presidential vote for General Grant. He was elected and served as township trustee for several years, and has been a member of the school board for a number of years, acting as its president and secretary and doing everything in his power to advance the standard of education in this portion of the county. Although of foreign birth Mr Westberg is as loyal to his adopted land as any native son of America. He has firm faith in its government and in its institutions and does all in his power to promote progress and improvement in his community thus adding to the sum of national advancement. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to America for in the new world he has found the business opportunities he sought, and in this land where labor is unhampered by caste or class he has met with very creditable success.

1902 Boone County History Book