Denver, History of Colorado, BIOS: SANDBURG, John. (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 302-303



JOHN SANDBURG.

	Among the younger men who have risen to positions of prominence 
in the business and financial life of Denver, there are few it any 
better known than John Sandburg, president of the Bankers' Securities 
Company. Mr. Sandburg's connection with high class investment issues 
has brought him into prominent relations with the financial world, 
where his standing is high, for his studies have been broad and 
comprehensive along that line. A native ot Pennsylvania, Mr. Sandburg 
was born in Wilcox on the 22d of August, 1882, a son of S. P. and Anna 
(Kraus) Sandburg, both of whom are natives of Sweden and are now 
residents of Denver, where the father is living retired after long and 
active connection with business interests.

	John Sandburg acquired a public school education, but his 
opportunities in that direction were somewhat limited, as he early 
began to earn his living by working in the coal mines, being thus 
employed to the age of fourteen years. He then took up the work of a 
machinist and millwright in Colorado, having come to this state in 
1897, at which time he established his home in Denver. He worked, 
however, in various places in the state until 1908 and then became 
identified with mercantile interests at Eaton, Colorado, where he 
successfully carried on business, building up the largest store or the 
kind outside of Denver. He conducted the store for three years and then 
turned his attention to other interests, becoming the promoter ot the 
Lovella Ditch, Reservoir & Irrigation Company, which constructed the 
Lovella ditch and reservoir. This company was named in honor of his 
daughter. At a later period he returned to Denver and became president 
of the Bankers' Securities Company, which handles only municipal paper. 
He is also the president of the Midwest Coal & Iron Company and owns 
the controlling interest in both of these corporations, which rank 
among the foremost business enterprises of the state. Mr. Sandburg is a 
man of marked executive force and administrative ability and his 
efforts and interests have been most carefully and wisely directed. He 
has the power of coordinating seemingly diverse interests into a 
unified and harmonious whole and he readily and quickly discriminates 
between the essential and the nonessential in all business 
transactions.

	In 1904 Mr. Sandburg was united in marriage to Miss Minnie 
Anderson, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, and to them have been born two 
children: Lovella, now twelve years of age, attending school; and 
Wanda, a little maiden of five summers.

	Mr. Sandburg is identified with the Democratic Club, which 
indicates his interest in the political questions and issues of the 
day. He has always been a stanch supporter of the principles of the 
party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise and he has 
done everything in his power to promote its success. He turns for 
recreation to hunting and fishing and greatly enjoys those sports. He 
is a self-made man and certainly deserves much credit for what he has 
accomplished. If one could turn back the hourglass of time to the 
opening years of the last decade of the nineteenth century one would 
find John Sandburg among the young lads working among the coal mines of 
Pennsylvania, for he thus began to provide for his own support when a 
boy of but nine years. He is absolutely self-made and as the architect 
of his own fortunes has builded wisely and well. Indefatigable energy 
and industry constitute the broad basis upon which has been built the 
foundation of his success. Working his way steadily upward, he has 
recognized and utilized opportunities that others have passed 
heedlessly by and his sound judgment has pointed out the path of safe 
investment, so that he is today at the head of two very important 
business corporations of Denver, in which connection he controls 
interests of great extent and magnitude.