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Severt Solberg, who was for over thirty years engaged in the meat business in Caledonia, of which place he was
a well to do and influential citizen, was born in Norway about 1859. His father, John Solberg, was a carpenter
who brought the family to the United States when the subject of this sketch was about sixteen years old. Settling
first in Illinois, they came later to La Crosse, Wis., where John Solberg finally died. Severt, who had received
some slight schooling in Norway, learned the carpenter's trade from his father and followed it in La Crosse, and
also for a while in Chicago. to which city he, with his father and a brother, went after the great fire of 1871
when builders and carpenters were in demand. Subsequently he returned to Minnesota, and resided for a while in
Lanesboro and Peterson, Fillmore county, opening a meat market in Peterson. In 1879 he came to Caledonia and bought
out the market of Mr. Weida, which he operated for four years, at the same time being engaged in buying stock.
He then rented a place on the site of the present property, finally buying it from Dan Haines, and, in 1905, he
erected a handsome block which now bears his name and that of his partner, Mr. Schansberg, who resided in Lanesboro.
This partnership was dissolved in 1910, Mr. Solberg retiring and the business passing into the hands of his son,
Helmer J. Severt Solberg died in 1913 at the age of fifty-four years. He was well known throughout the county,
where for so many years he had been engaged in the stock business. Fraternally he belonged to the Woodmen's and
Workmen's lodges, and was a prominent member of the Norwegian Lutheran church, and was its representative in the
Old Synod at its meeting in Chicago. Mr. Solberg married Jeanette Schansberg, who was, like himself, a native of
Norway, coming to America with her parents when four years old. She died in 1900 at the age of forty two. They
had ten children: James Olaf and Vina G., who died young; Laura, now Mrs. B. E. Tweten of Solway, Minn.; Inga,
wife of J. B. Bjorstad of Glasgow, Mont.; Helmer J., now of the firm of Solberg Bros., of Caledonia, Minn.; Selma,
wife of Frank Hundt, of Bucyrus, N. D.; Ada, wife of Adolph Eiken, of Caledonia, Minn.; Edna, who married H. S.
McKay of Cloquet, Minn.; William A., a partner of Helmer J. in the meat business; and Vina M., now Mrs. S. C. Stenehjem
of Caledonia.
FROM:
The History of Houston County, Minnesota
Edited by: Franklyn Curtis-Wedge.
H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Winona, Minn. 1919
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