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History of Story County, Iowa Vol 2 by William O. Payne, 1911

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Page 166 of 507

at the age of sixteen years; and Anna Fay, the wife of Emmitt Armstrong, of Nevada.

While Mr. Lockridge conducted important business interests and displayed an aptitude for successful management in their control, he did not selfishly concentrate his energies upon business affairs to the exclusion of all other interests in life. He was a public-spirited citizen and his cooperation could be counted upon to further many measures and movements for the general good. He served both as a member of the city council and as mayor of Nevada and exercised his official prerogatives in support of all projects which he deemed of benefit to the city at large. As chief executive his administration was businesslike and resulted in the adoption of various measures of reform and progress. At one time he was a member of the Masonic fraternity and he always exemplified in his life the beneficent spirit of the craft, being ever ready to extend a helping hand where assistance was needed. He died July 23, 1903, at the advanced age of seventy-one years. Nevada had long claimed him as one of her prominent citizens and the basic principles of his life were such as won him the regard, confidence and honor of all with whom he came in contact.


SOREN V. KALSEM.

In the list of Columbia's adopted children who put on the blue and fought for the stars and stripes in the south during those momentous days of the early '60s must be placed the name of Soren V. Kalsem. He was born in Norway on the 14th of August, 1836, in which country his boyhood and youth were passed. He acquired his preliminary education in the schools of his village and after completing the course of study he entered a more advanced school and remained there until he felt competent to apprentice himself to a trade. He chose cabinetmaking for his life work and has continued to follow that trade during his residence in the United States. In 1858 he opened the first cabinetmaker's shop in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

He was one of the first to respond to the call for volunteers and in 1861 enlisted in Company C, Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He spent about three years in the army, much of which time he was actively engaged at the front. He took part in many of the notable battles of the war, being at Shiloh and Fort Donelson and the closely contested engagement at Belmont. He was wounded three times and yet bears the scars of some of those strifes. He now keeps in touch with his old comrades through his membership in Ellsworth Post, No. 30, of the G. A. R.

Mr. Kalsem was united in marriage to Miss Sarena Strom, and they have become the parents of the following children : Sarah, the wife of Irven Wettland ; Goodman, who resides in Marshalltown, Iowa ; Fulton ;

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