6/14/2007:
In 1870, John Gustav Bergquist, an immigrant of Sweden filed his declaration for US citizenship. He would walk 100 miles to Alexandria ten days from today to become an American. Born in Brunamala, Smaland, Sweden in 1849, he left his homeland after a feud with his father over a smashed accordion. His father thought his love of music was frivolous and would dangerously divert his attention from work and God. After John’s sister heard him playing in the woods, she told their father, who then smashed the accordion to pieces. This so angered John he never went back. After spending a year in Wisconsin and Minnesota, while working on farms, he participated in the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad line going to Puget Sound, Washington. After reaching Brainerd, Minn, John was laid off, and he went back to farming.
In February of 1870, John walked in the middle of a blustering winter from Brainerd to Moorhead. The only other resident in Moorhead at the time was a New York state recluse, Job Smith, who lived in a log stagecoach stop near the old American Legion Building on 1st Avenue North. John worked for Smith for a dollar a day, room and board. Another early settler August Landbloom arrived on skis to the Red River Valley about the same time, but settled in Georgetown, Minn. Alone and single in the fledgling city of Moorhead. John made a claim on a big bend in the Red River about a mile north of Smith’s place. He cut logs across the river on Fargo’s Oak Grove Park and used Smith’s oxen to skid them to his new homestead. He moved into the 14 x 24 foot home in April. In the 1880s Moorhead’s population exploded when the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads arrived. In 1881, John opened his first brickyard and made a fortune. Along with some partners, he invested in a manufacturing plant, which went belly up. Now bankrupt, John lost everything. He was not as forward thinking as some of his partners, who used their wives names on all their properties to protect them from creditors. John lost his house, brickyard, farm, but through hard work eventually gained it back, only to lose it again in the 1890s. The log cabin John built still stands and is located on 1008 7th St N.
After the death of Tess Bergquist in 1991 the Swedish Heritage Cultural Society opened the cabin. Tours of the Bergquist house are during the Scandinavian Hjemkomst Festival June 22-24 from 12-4pm.
By Erika Lorentzsen
Source: Cass Country Historical Society