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This gentleman has been a resident of Clay County for nearly a score of years, and has experienced many hardships in his efforts to make a home here. He has succeeded in spite of all the disadvantages under which he labored, and now has a valuable estate of 240 acres, located on Section 13, Sherman Township, where he resides.
Andrew Klintberg was born in Regusjo (Rain Lake), near the city of Soderhamn, Sweden, being a son of Andrew and Engrad (Klint) Hanson. His parents and several generations of ancestors were reared in the same county, and were adherents of the faith of the Lutheran Church. He learned the trade of steamboat engineering on Inland Lake, and also learned the trade of a carpenter, working at the latter some years. Three years were spent in the military service of his native land.
In July, 1867, Mr. Klintberg came to the United States, making the voyage on the steamship "City of Paris" in twelve days. He landed at New York, and thence went at once to Chicago, Illinois, arriving in the latter place almost penniless. He chanced to find a Norwegian who could understand the Swedish language, and who gave our subject and another Swede who was in similar circumstances, each a $5 bill, and authorized the proprietor of a boarding house to take them to an agency and have them taken to Michigan to work in a saw mill. Then they got from Chicago to Manistee, Michigan and started work. As soon as they had made the amount they returned the $10 to their newly-made friend in Chicago.
Mr. Klintberg remained in Manistee twenty-one months, and during that time saved money enough to come to Kansas and homestead 160 acres. Then again he was out of fund, and leaving his family with another family that had settled here, he went twelve miles to where he found work. Thus he got a sack of flour, which he brought back, and then made a dug-out, in which the family lived three years. He then made another on the spot where his dwelling house now stands, the dug-out being used for a cellar. In the second dug-out he lived four years before building the commodious and comfortable frame house which is now the family dwelling.
When Mr. Klintberg came to this homestead, the country was a wild and open prairie, and not a stick of timber of anything buy heavy prairie grass was on the claim. He now has a nice grove of forest trees, an apple orchard of about three acres, and a quantity of grapes. There are about 750 rods of hedge; and a good stable, granaries, corn-cribs, a wind mill, etc., have been erected on the estate. Eighty acres have been added to the homestead, and the entire acreage is carefully and intelligently handled.
Mr. Klintberg has worked at his trade of a carpenter part of the time since he came here, and has built many of the houses in this vicinity. He worked on the first frame building in Clay Center, which was the first house he built in the United States.
Mr. Klintberg has done much work as a pioneer minister, when there was no regular preacher here. He would walk from his farm to near Clay Center, work all the week and walk home Saturday night, and then on Sunday morning would walk to a place of worship distant six miles, go again in the evening, and after his second service walk back to Clay Center, to be ready for his work Monday morning.
In Sweden, in 1856, the gentleman of whom we write was united in marriage with Miss Bertie Klintberg. Five children were born to them while they still lived in their native land, and two died before the parents came to America. Three children have been born in America. The living are: Lewis P., Albert, August V., Charles E., Henry W., and Matilda. The latter is living in Portland, Oregon.
Mr. Klintberg and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is an exhorter and Class-Leader. He was formerly identified with the Lutherans, and as a member of that denomination did pioneer work in spreading the Gospel. He had also preached for some years in his native land. He and his wife can enjoy the comforts by which they are surrounded, in the consciousness that their years have been well and usefully spent, and with a feeling of thankfulness that their labors have been crowned with success.
(NOTE from Patricia Adams: The granddaughter of Andrew Klintberg, daughter of Albert Klintberg, Ella Amanda Klintberg, born Dec 21, 1988 in Clay Center, KS, married William Aaron Broden, son of Andrew Phillip Broden, another Portrait listed in this section. The Klintbergs and the Brodens were neighbors in Sherman Township.)
