OBIT: Oscar L. SIMSTREN, 1943, formerly of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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OSCAR L. SIMSTREN

  Oscar L. Simstren, native of Sweden and at one time a resident of Meyersdale, 
died Jan. 3, 1943, at his home in Chisholm, Minn., where he had been the pioneer 
and versatile director of the band, orchestra and drum corps back in the early 
1900's.  He was aged 63 years, and had been ill for about two years.
  Funeral services were held Wednesday at 2 p.m. from the First Lutheran Church 
with the Reverand A. E. Bomgren officiating.  Interment was made in Chisholm 
cemetery.
  Of Swedish culture, Mr. Simstren was born on the Viking pensinsula June 30, 
1880.  After arriving in this country he came to Meyersdale where he worked in 
the mines and in the planing mill and where he met and married Miss Maude Martz 
in 1903.  In that year the couple moved to Pitcairn, Pa., and in 1910 moved to 
Chisholm where Mr. Simstren accepted the position of instructor and director of 
music in the boom building days following the Chisholm fire.  Music was his 
first love, and "Sim's Orchestra" syncopations were heard all over the iron 
range.  When the drum and bugle corps was organized their first and logical 
director was Oscar Simstren.
  For many years he served as clerk of the Water and Light Board, later 
accepting a position in the business office of the school district.  He has also 
been active in the Masonic Order for the past 30 years.
  Surviving besides his wife are a daughter, Gladys, teaching in Virginia, and 
his father, Oscar W. Sundstrom of Chisholm.

Meyersdale Republican, January 21, 1943