Martin Soelberg

SOELBERG VANG

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 19:50:06

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Martin Soelberg
By Christine Haugen

Martin Soelberg was one of the Norwegians who could trace their ancestry back to Reformation Times with many of them in important positions. One of his brothers, Lars, was an architect for the Trondhjem Cathedral. Another Nils, was with Norway’s bank. Father of Nils K Soelberg who also came to Sioux City was married to Ingrid, daughter of H A Forseth, organist and choir leader at the Cathedral in Trondhjem.

Martin Soelberg was born on the big estate Uglen in Byaasen in1848. His father was a miller there. Martin studied at the seminary but did not become a teacher. He became a furniture cabinet maker. He married Olava Vang in1870. He emigrated to Sioux City in 1881.

His wife and five children came the year after. He found employment in a joining mill. He soon built his house on Sioux Street, where one after another of the Tronder emigrants built their houses on the bluffs above the Missouri.

In this home his wife, besides caring for her own large family, welcomed relatives from Norway. Among these were her sisters, Paulianna Grindberg and Hanna Loraas and their families, who stayed with her until they established their own homes. But where the heart room is, there is house room. The oldest of the Grindberg boys, Thorwald ‘Tom’, started as a messenger boy at the larges wholesale grocery firm of the day, Warfield and Company, and later became president for many years. The six sons held responsible positions, with Carl, the youngest, becoming a pastor. One daughter, Petra, married Ray K O Gjernes and spent fifty years in North Dakota before she returned to Sioux City. The other daughter, Olava Larsen, raised a large family in Sioux City.

In the 90s Soelberg started his own planning mill, but due to hard times closed it in 1900 and worked at Curtis Sash and Door Company. After a brief stay in South Dakota where he took a homestead, he returned to Sioux City where he died in 1919. He had encourage and assisted many to emigrate to America.

The five Soelberg children were: Peder, Alfred P, Sverre, Beret (who married Rev S D Runsvold), and Anton. Alfred and Sverre owned the Sioux City Crockery Company.

This is from the Tronder Yearbook translated from Norwegian by Julia Anderson.