SKALBERG, Jonas C. - 1914

SKALBERG, MONSON, BRANT, ANDERSON

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/9/2009 at 18:15:15

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914
by Thomas McCulla

JONAS C. SKALBERG.

Jonas C. Skalberg, residing on section 26, Liberty township, has been successfully engaged in business as a contractor for the past seven years and has also held the office of township clerk for the same length of time. His birth occurred in Sweden on the 20th of April, 1866, his parents being Carl and Christina (Monson) Skalberg, likewise natives of that country. The father, a millwright by trade, worked at that occupation throughout his active business career and passed away in Sweden in the year 1882. The mother was called to her final rest on the 6th of November, 1908.

Jonas C. Skalberg obtained his early education in his native land and also attended school for a short time after emigrating to the new world. In Sweden he learned the millwrights trade and also worked at carpentering. In 1883, when a youth of seventeen, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States and made his way direct to Cherokee county, Iowa, and during the following twelve years was employed as a farm hand. Subsequently he again resumed work at his trade and for five years remained in the service of the Illinois Central Railroad Company as a bridge carpenter. During the past seven years he has devoted his attention to the contracting business, furnishing steady employment to five or six men. He is prompt and careful in the execution of contracts awarded him and has won a well merited reputation as an able and representative business man of the community. Mr. Skalberg resides on the J. A. Roulston place in section 26, Liberty towship, but has not found time to engage in the active work of the fields. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Larra- bee and owns a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres in South Dakota.

In February, 1897, Mr. Skalberg was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Brant, her parents being John and Hedwig S. (Anderson) Brant, natives of Sweden. The father, an agriculturist by occupation, emigrated to the United States and took up his abode among the earliest settlers of Liberty township, Cherokee county, where he purchased and improved a tract of land and has carried on farming continuously since. Mr. and Mrs. Skalberg have three children, as follows: Elsie I., fourteen years old; and Carl V. and Margaret M., who are eleven and four years of age respectively.

In politics Mr. Skalberg is a republican. For the past seven years he has ably discharged the duties devolving upon him in the capacity of township clerk, and he has also served as school director of Liberty township. His fraternal relations are with the Modern. Woodmen of America at Cleghorn, while in religious faith he is a Baptist. In private life he has been actuated by principles which govern honorable and upright manhood and the same high ideals have ever been manifest in his business dealings. The hope that led him to leave his native land and seek a home in America has been more than realized. He found the opportunities he sought,—opportunities which are always open to the ambitious, energetic man,—and making the best of these he has steadily worked his way upward. The period of his residence in Cherokee county covers three decades, and he is widely recognized as one of its substantial, representative and esteemed citizens.