vonBerg, Charles L. 1864-1939

VONBERG, MCMANUS

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 3/2/2011 at 15:02:24

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
January 2, 1940

Charles von Berg Pioneer Citizen Passes Divide
Gifted With Variety Of Talents In Many Pursuits

C. L. von Berg, 75, resident of LeMars for seventy years and widely known in Plymouth and surrounding counties, died early Saturday morning at his home, 214 First Avenue, following a lingering illness.

Mr. von Berg had been in poor health for seven years although not continually confined to the house and was able to be out and attend to occupational cares and meet friends whose names are legion.

“Charlie” von Berg, the name by which he was known almost universally, was a man of versatile attainments and was proficient in many professional and mechanical lines and in addition gifted with musical and artistic talents and as a writer.

Intimates of his often said “Charlie” can fix anything from a watch to a locomotive engine.

A lover of the outdoors, a characteristic inherited from his father, Charles von Berg, pioneer Plymouth County settler. Charles von Berg was a sportsman in the true sense of the word. He was a hunter not to slaughter but for the skill and was a marksman of note gaining laurels in many competitions and a string of medals he won in tourneys are among household souvenirs.

SENSE OF VISION
He was possessed of a forward looking mind and sensed the approach of things in the elemental and was in the vanguard at the approach of new inventions.

As a youth on the farm he was interested in machinery and in early days operated a threshing machine when horses were the motive power and later when the steam engine was introduced operated a steam thresher and after took up engineering, electricity and mechanical subjects.

FOLLOWED MANY PURSUITS
After receiving his education in the rural schools, he engaged in teaching school in Plymouth and Sioux counties and in the years following was employed in railroad work and in the eighties was operator and clerk at Brainerd, Minn., and was employed at LeMars by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha railroad company. He was employed at times at Bingham Lake and at various stations and at the Omaha office of the company.

In the nineties he sold and operated threshing machines selling machines in a territory of five states and later engaged in selling typewriters.

He lived in LeMars most of his life with the exception of a few years homesteading in Dakota and at another period ranching in Nebraska.

NOTED AS MUSICIAN
Mr. von Berg was well known to earlier residents as a violinist and played at merry makings in the early days when the orchestra was accommodated with a platform supported by planks stretched upon empty beer kegs.

The services of himself and his orchestra were in equal demand at weddings, concerts and fetes in the most selected circles.

WAS AN ATHLETE
In his youth Charley was a noted bicyclist and made a number of record runs. In 1890 he won the state championship at Des Moines.

When the automobile came into fashion, he was one of the first to drive the then newfangled machines and in 1903 and 1904 won many races at county fairs. He was apt at games, tennis, football and hockey and showed prowess in swimming and skating.

When well over the age of sixty he played “goalie” for the LeMars hockey team and his style of attack and defense was envied by hockey adherents a third of his age in years. He was awarded a Red Cross life saving badge for swimming when he was 61.

BORN IN IOWA
Charles Louis von Berg was born at McGregor, Iowa, March 18, 1864. When three years old his parents after the return of his father from serving in the Civil War, went to Water- where they conducted a store for a few years. They came to Plymouth county in 1869 and homesteaded 160 acre farm a mile east of town.

Charles von Berg was married November 4, 1903, to Miss George Elliott McManus, daughter of State Senator S. B. McManus and Mrs. McManus of Elkhart, Ind. He is survived by his wife, one brother, William von Berg, and one sister, Mrs. William Henry of Emmetsburg, Iowa, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. McManus, who has lived in the von Berg home for years.

FUNERAL ON TUESDAY
The funeral will be held Tuesday morning at 9:30 at the Wiltgen funeral home. Rev. R. H. Paulson of St. George’s Episcopal church will officiate at the services.

The body will be taken to Omaha for cremation and the ashes placed in a memorial urn.