Rockford, Winnebago County
Source: History of the Swedes in Illinois, Part III, E. Olson & M. Engberg, Chicago, Illinois, 1908
Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin, Tampico Area Historical Society, www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com
Page 158
Photo from the book that accompanied the biography.
Charles J. LUNDBERG, furniture manufacturer, was born of Swedish parents at Kirkland, Ills., De Kalb co., Oct. 28, 1871. He attended the country schools, afterwards, removing to the city of Rockford and attended the Rockford Business College, completing a business course in a very short period of time. He then became a teacher of book-keeping in the evening school at the college, but resigned his position to become book-keeper for the Star Furniture Co., in which capacity he served for some time, after wards being elected secretary and treasurer of the company which position he held for a period. Mr. LUNDBERG sold his interest in the company and started on the road selling furniture for the Rockford Desk Co. in which company he was president and heavily interested financially, and traveled for three years. He later sold his interest too Oscar BERGQUIST, the present secretary and treasurer, and purchased the plant now known as the Co-Operative Furniture Co., from the assignee, F. F. WORMWOOD. All the capital he had at that time was accumulated by himself through hard manual labor, during his first three years in the city. He had worked at the different furniture factories, starting at the Forest City Furniture Co, working in the machine roommate 75 cents per day. Mr. LUNDBERG was in 1907 reelected to the office of vice-president of the National Furniture Association of America.
He was appointed the purchasing agent for Rockford, all the purchases for the entire city being placed in his hands. Mr. LUNDBERG was elected alderman of the first ward in 1903 and still holds the position.
At present he is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Co-Operative Furniture Co., owning the controlling interest in the company with a capital of $50,000.00 paid in, $45,000.00 surplus, and doing a business of $150,000.00 per annum.
Mrs. Olga Olive LUNDBERG is of Swedish descent and was born Sept. 28, 1876, and was married on her birthday in 1898. She attended Augustana College, taking the music course. Mr. and Mrs. LUNDBERG are members of the Zion Swedish Lutheran Church in which Mr. LUNDBERG has been a trustee.
NOTE: On March 15, 2014, I, (Denise McLoughlin), received the following email from a Mr. Jay Johnson:
"Ms. McLoughlin,
Yes, I am referring to this page of your website...http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com/articles/article/2152818/52261.htm
The title of the picture (text below picture) says Charles I. Lundberg, not the Charles J. Lundberg that the page refers to. So this seems an obvious error. The problem is that this erroneous picture is found many places on the web (i.e. Google Images) and is a result of your site's wrong data.
If you would be so kind as to correct this error it would be most beneficial to genealogists like you and myself in years to come.
Charles J. Lundberg's house is on the National List of Historic Places and in that house they have a copy of this erroneous picture which is an example of how this stuff spreads.
The reference for the correct picture is on page 12 of the following Zion Lutheran Church documentation.
http://www.zionrockford.com/docs/History/Swedish_Heritage_Volume_20_Zion.pdf
Thank you for your work on your excellent historical site. We all know that many unintentional errors occur in our efforts but when we find them we must feel obligated to correct them as much as possible. I feel that in this case since it indirectly involves National List of Historic Places data that it deserves correction.
Sincere Regards,
Jay Johnson
Here is photo submitted by Jay Johnson:
In my opinion, I do not have the right to arbitrarily change what is in this book and present it as 'original' material or even a copy of an original. This information was printed, scanned & uploaded from a CD, HISTORY OF THE SWEDES IN ILLINOIS, PART III, publication scan by George Wolf, 2004, originally published by E.Olson & M. Engberg,Chicago, Illinois, 1908.
I will post comments though, and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.
Respectfully submitted to this reading audience,
Denise Wranik McLoughlin
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