Charles O. Moberg Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 672

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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CHARLES O. MOBERG, a prosperous farmer of township 118, range 67, Faulk 
county, was born near Orobro, Sweden, in 1855. He was reared on a farm 
and is the eldest child in the family. At the age of fifteen years he 
commenced working at railroad work in his native land, which he 
followed four years. While at that work the end of his finger was 
accidentally crushed between large rolling stones and he nearly lost 
his life by the accident, and during the same service he received a 
bullet wound in the knee from a companion who was playing a joke. At 
the age of nineteen years he went to sea and sailed on the coast trade 
for two years, and then hired on a vessel bound for Australia. Before 
starting he and four others fell from the rigging, a distance of 
thirty-five feet, and they were put ashore. He made three more efforts 
to go to Australia, but failing, hired on a German vessel and sailed to 
Nortonport, Sweden, where he and his partner abandoned the vessel on 
account of its leaky condition. He was unfortunate enough to take 
passage on the German vessel "Reform," which run on a bank in the 
southern part of Sweden, and the mate poisoned the captain, causing his 
death. During six years' service on coast trade our subject was 
shipwrecked on a Swedish schooner several miles from shore and two days 
and one night were consumed in reaching land in their small boat. He 
emigrated to America May 14, 1883, and located in Will county, 
Illinois, where he worked until fall and then went to Iowa, where he 
engaged in coal mining at Miller's coal bank. He had made a fair start 
when water broke into the mine and it was abandoned and his tools were 
lost. He worked the remainder of the winter in the Polk county coal 
bank and in February, 1884, went to Faulk county, South Dakota, and 
took a pre-emption on the northwest quarter of section 32, township 
118, range 67, and erected a sod shanty 8 x 10 feet. He had but 
seventy-five cents when he landed in Athol and encountered a blizzard 
the first day. He worked one year for his father and in 1885 worked on 
the section force of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad at one 
dollar and ten cents per day. He purchased a wagon, plow, drag and 
three oxen in 1886 and went to farming. He erected a small sod barn and 
lived a bachelor's life until the fall of 1888. January 12, 1888, he 
went to the barn to feed his cattle and the blizzard came upon him, and 
after repeated trials to reach his shanty, only to find himself at his 
barn again, he gave up and remained in the barn during the night. He 
now possesses one hundred and sixty acres of land and engages in cattle 
and wheat raising. He keeps about fifty-three head of cattle and has a 
good pasture. His buildings are commodious and substantial and furnish 
a comfortable home. When he built his shanty there was but one other 
sod shanty in the neighborhood, and he has witnessed the growth and 
development of that region. 

Our subject was married in the fall of 1888 to Miss Carolina 
Stonequest, a native of Sweden and daughter of Andrew Stonequest, a 
farmer by occupation. Five daughters and one son have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Moberg, named in order of birth as follows: Hilder, Harry, 
Singna, Dogne, Annie, and an infant unnamed. Mr. Moberg is a gentleman 
who keeps abreast of the times and in political faith is a gold 
Democrat.