Parents and Birthplace
Herbert Wilhelm Lundberg was born 9 February 1902 in Svea, Whitefield Township, Kandiyohi County, Minnesota to Rev. Jonas Lundberg and Anna Lundberg. He was the 12th and last child of Jonas and the 6th and last child of Anna. Herb joined his at-home siblings: Laura (11), Karl (9), Amy (7), Tina (5), and Vernon (2).
The family moved 20 miles east from Svea to Beckville in 1910 after Rev. Lundberg accepted a call to serve congregations in Meeker County. Rev. Lundberg suffered a stroke during a confirmation service and died on 28 May 1911 at the age of 59. Anna and her children moved from the parsonage to a house down the road in Beckville.
Herb’s sister Tina died of tuberculosis in 1912 at the age of 16. Then his brother Vernon died of the same disease in 1917 at the age of 17. At that time, tuberculosis was the single most common cause of death in the United States.
Sisters Laura and Amy left home after their double wedding in Beckville in 1914. Brother Karl married in 1923 and moved with his bride to St. Paul, MN.
Herb completed the 8th grade in Beckville and began work as a farm laborer to help support his mother. He had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a minister, but it was not possible due to their economic circumstances. During his life Herb was always a strong member of his church, frequently serving on their boards. He always enjoyed a good sermon and would sometimes attend an additional Sunday service at another church in order to hear a strong preacher.
In 1919 Herb and his mother moved 9 miles north to Litchfield (population 2,800) and bought a house at 521 South Swift Avenue. He continued to live with his mother until her death in 1924 at the age of 65. After the house was sold, Herb may have stayed on the farm with Merritt and Amy Nelson for a while. Then he probably moved to Willmar and lived with his sister Ellen Westerberg and her daughter, Ruby. Herb worked in the roundhouse for the Great Northern Railway in Willmar. However, his brother-in-law, Ed Danielson, thought that the railroad was not a good career and offered Herb a position with the Wood River Co-operative Creamery in Alpha, Wisconsin and encouraged him to gain certification as a buttermaker by attending the Dairy School at the University of Wisconsin. Herb moved from Willmar to Wood River in 1926.
After receiving affirmations of Herb's good character from Willmar, the Free and Accepted Masons, Grantsburg Lodge #244, approved his petition for membership on 20 March 1928. Herb served as Master (leader) of the Lodge in 1932-1933 and 1940-1943. He never talked with his family about his experiences as a Mason.
While he was living in Willmar, Herb met Luella Dahlseid on a blind date. Always the jokester, Herb purposely wore two different colored shoes on that first date. Ever insecure, Luella purposely left her coat in Herb’s car so that they would have to see each other again. The couple dated for about five years before they attained the financial stability to marry. During this period, Luella worked as a clerk for a retail store in Willmar.
Luella was born the fourth of eight children on 16 December 1903 in Brookfield Township, Worth County, Iowa to Carl Olaus Dahlseid (1873-1950), a farmer, and his wife Emma Kristine Anderson (1877-1947). Carl’s parents came from Norway (na/1856) and Emma’s parents came from Sweden (1868/1868). The Dahlseid family moved from Iowa to a farm in Kerkhoven in Swift County, Minnesota in 1915 and then 15 miles east to Willmar (population 6,000) in 1924. As the fourth and last daughter in the family, Luella had additional responsibilies to help raise the next four children in the family, all boys. For this reason, she left school after the 8th grade.
The photograph of the Dahlseid children was taken in 1916 and includes, left to right in age order: Leonard, Arthur, Murville, Clarence, Luella, Esther, Ellen and Alpha.
Marriage
“Mesdames O. Lundberg [Minnie] and P.O. Nelson [Ellen] gave a parcel shower Saturday evening at the home of the former, the honor guest being Miss Luella Dahlseid, a bride-to-be.” (The Willmar Journal 26 Jan 1929)
"Dahlseid-Lundberg; Son of Late Rev. and Mrs. J.O. Lundberg Married at Willmar Last Week
The Wedding of Miss Luella Dahlseid, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Dahlseid of Willmar, and Herbert Lundberg, son of the late Rev. and Mrs. J.O. Lundberg, took place at the Bethel Lutheran Church at Willmar at 5 o’clock Thursday afternoon, January 24. Rev. Jesper Holmquist performed the ceremony.
The bride was attired in white satin. Her veil was caught with pearls and she carried a bridal bouquet of roses and sweet peas. Miss Alpha Dahlseid of Minneapolis, sister of the bride, was bridesmaid. She wore a dress of yellow georgette. The groom was attended by his nephew, Lester Lundberg of Willmar.
After the ceremony a reception was held at the bride’s home for the immediate relatives.
Out of town guests were Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Danielson and son Dale of Grantsburg, Wis.
Mr. Lundberg is well known in this community, having lived at Beckville and Litchfield. Mr. and Mrs. Lundberg will reside at Grantsburg." (The Litchfield Review, Friday, 1 February 1929, p. 1)
The happy couple left the following Monday for Wood River Township, Wisconsin, where Herb returned to work in the creamery.
On 3 November 1929 Luella gave birth to their first child, Elaine Luella, in the hospital in nearby Frederic.
On 14 October 1931 Jeanne Shirley was born at home in Grantsburg.
During the early 1930s, the family moved from the rented farm in Wood River Township to the nearby village of Grantsburg (population 777). The farming experience came during a period of low farm prices and the family accumulated about $3,000 in debt, which they spent several years paying off. Herb's salary at the creamery was about $125 per month.
All of the children started school in Grantsburg. During the 13 years in Grantsburg, the family lived in four different rented homes.
On 29 October 1933, Carol Elizabeth was born at home. And on 19 March 1935, Herbert Willis, Jr. was born in the upstairs of a rented duplex near the courthouse in Grantsburg. The family was complete.
During the 1930s, Herb was a very successful buttermaker, winning awards and holding senior positions in the Wisconsin Buttermakers Association. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 1934, elected Vice President in 1935, elected President in 1936 and then served as Treasurer from 1937 to 1943.
Family vacations were primarily automobile trips to see family in Minnesota. The children enjoyed visiting their aunt Ellen, Luella's sister, on a farm near Willmar. In 1940, the family added a trip to Milwaukee where Herb could attend a Mason's convention while the rest of the family took in the sights, including the kids' first visit to a zoo. The following year included a trip to Madison and the Wisconsin Dells.
The family also visited Luella's parents in Willmar. Elaine recalls Emma as a short, stocky woman who wore high button shoes. Carl worked at a service station where he kept a monkey, an exotic attraction for the kids.
During the summer the extended family would gather for picnics, especially on the 4h of July, at St. Croix Falls, at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, and at Ed & Laura's cottage on Wood Lake near Grantsburg. This was the kids' opportunity to eat ice cream and play with their many cousins.
In 1943 the family moved to Tomah, Wisconsin, where Herb managed a larger co-op grain elevator. Tomah was quite a bit larger than Grantsburg and had army camps, an air force school, parks and a municipal swimming pool. The first summer the family could not find housing in town so they lived on a nearby farm and the kids walked into town to go swimming every day.
The local Lutheran church in Tomah was Missouri Synod, with strict rules barring membership in the Masons and, even, the Girl Scouts. The family instead joined an evangelical church, where they especially enjoyed more music and singing.
In the fall of 1945 Bud and Lloyd Danielson returned from the war and were discharged from the US Army at nearby Camp McCoy. Their first stop after discharge was celebration at the Lundberg family home in Tomah.
However, Tomah was not for the long term. Luella's arthritis was aggravated by the dampness of the area. And, she and Herb worried that the almost 35,000 soldiers and a prisoner-of-war camp in the area did not make a good environment in which to raise 3 daughters.
The family moved to Princeton, Minnesota in 1946 and then moved back to Grantsburg in 1947, where Herb managed a co-op creamery and grain elevator. According to daughter Jeanne, the children thought all of the moves were terrible---for about a week, then they adapted and found new friends.
Finally, in 1949 the family moved to Frederic (population 700), Wisconsin where Herb again managed a grain elevator.
On 15 April 1950 daughter Elaine married John William (Bill) Hoag at Trade Lake, Wisconsin. Elaine met Bill at a church picnic outside Warrens shortly after the Lundberg family arrived in Tomah. They attended high school together and Bill served 3 years in the U.S. Air Force before they married and raised 5 children in Tomah.
On 10 October 1953 daughter Jeanne married Richard (Dick) George Patterson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They settled in Minneapolis and raised two girls.
In the mid-1950s Herb sold Ford automobiles and later worked as a salesman for a feed company.
On 22 November 1962 son Herb, Jr. married Corrine (Cork) Hildegarde Nelson in Hennepin County, Minnesota. They raised 3 children in Stillwater.
On 13 June 1964 daughter Carol married Oliver Owen in Hennepin County, Minnesota. They met in in 1963 at a Lutheran adult book club in Minneapolis. At the time, Ollie was a professor at Mankato State and Carol was doing social work in the Twin Cities. They lived in White Bear Lake until 1967 when they moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Ollie became a professor at the University of Wisconsin. Carol and Ollie raised three children.
Around 1965 Herb began selling group medical insurance to businesses. In Frederic, Herb was actively involved in the Pilgrim Lutheran Church, the Chamber of Commerce and the volunteer fire department.
Herb was a friendly, fun-loving person who liked to trade stories with the many farmers and merchants who became his friends. The family chose not to have any sort of liquor in the house. Herb's one vice was the occasional cigar, which he often smoked in the car, to the consternation of his children.
Farmers in that era had widely divergent political views, varying from hard left progressives to hard right conservatives. Working for farmers co-ops, Herb was reluctant to share his political views, even with Luella. He changed jobs several times, always looking to improve his family's economic circumstances.
On 15 September 1968 Herb and Luella were walking to Pilgrim Lutheran Church, located about a block away from their home in Frederic. Herb had crossed the street and had one foot on the curb when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. He died at Miller Hospital in St. Paul on 1 October 1968 at age 66.
Luella was a bundle of energy who made many friends and worked as a clerk in the Ben Franklin store in Frederic. She knew everybody in town and everybody loved Luella. In addition to raising four children, she took in boarders, often single teachers, during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Luella lived to be 90 years old and died in Eau Claire, WI, on 24 July 1994.
Both Herb and Luella are buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Frederic, WI.
