Person:Irving Swensrud (1)

As a boy, Irv says he hauled water to the steam engine and grain to the separator when they were harvesting on his father's farm.

About Northwood, Iowa, where Irv's family lived and where he grew up on a nearby farm. This is from the City of Northwood's website.

Northwood, the Worth County Seat, is located four miles from the Iowa-Minnesota border and a short distance from Interstate 35. Its exceptionally wide streets seem to invite people into the community, which is home to just over 2,000 people. Perhaps one of the many unique features of Northwood is best described by a Des Moines Register newspaper writer: "At Northwood, the Shell Rock executes a graceful horseshoe bend to touch the city's business district. Here is one of the pleasantest park sites in Iowa. Anyone who strolls down past the store fronts of Northwood may step down an almost unnoticed stairway. Only an instant ago, sweltering in the hot sun, the stroller now finds himself in a river encircled park area radiant with water rushing over a dam almost secluded in the broken shadows of oaks, ash and evergreen. This unusual park area contains a swimming pool, shelter house, band stand and ball diamond. Many communities like to boast about their parks, but this one is a little different from all others."

About the school he attended as a boy: Grove Township District School No. 5 (The Swensrud School)

The schoolhouse was built in 1874 by William G. Stott on the farm of John McQuatters, three miles east and one mile north of Northwood. About 1890, it was moved one mile north, where it stood until it was moved from the Swensrud farm to its present location in 1972.

The school contains rows of desks with carvings of long ago, a pot-bellied stove, lunch pails on the bench and a collection of old school books. The names of the teachers who taught in this school are posted on the wall.

Open: Sundays, 2 to 4 p.m. Memorial Day through Labor Day. Location: Junction of Central Ave (Hwy. 105) and 10th St. (Hwy. 65) in Northwood, just south of the Main Museum. WCHS Home Swensrud School Worth County Historical Society

Jan 5, 1921, Northwood Anchor, p. 4: "Miss Est (sic) Swensrud and Master Irving are getting along quite well after their recent operation for removal of tonsils and adenoids."

The following is from an undated newspaper clipping (probably The Northwood Anchor) in Belle's album. See the Scrapbook for pictures of Irv and Black Beauty. This was in 1925.

SWENSRUD BOY TELLS STORY OF CLUB WORK

"All of the boys and girls in the country club work must keep accurate records of the feed and labor costs of preparing their pigs and calves for competition and also a sotry of that work. Irving Swensrud of Grove township tells his story under the title, "My Pig Club Work," as follows: 'I am a boy 12 years old. I have been in the pig club two years and I thing it is a good thing for boys and girls; you learn how to care for your animals and you can say that you have had experience with stock when you were young. I have learned things about judging stock that I never knew before. I live on the farm and I like the farm for the boy on the farm has a better advantage than the town or city boy. Well, I must tell my story. 'I bought my pig from Flatness Bros. We took it home on the side of the car. I had the pen already completed. It was a fairly good sized pen with lots of shade trees. Well, I made a little house for my pig and about the next thing I did was to name her. At last I named her Black Beauty. I named her this because she was all black and to me she was a beauty, I thought. At first she was a little wild, but soon got tame and when I came with feed she would stick her head out of her house and look and when she heard me pour the milk in the trough she would jump up and run for the milk. I started feeding her on June 10. I fed her 139 gallons of milk before the fair. I started with one gallon a day and gave her more as she grew older and bigger. I fed her 3 bushels of corn, 8 bushels of oats, 32 pounds of tankage and 89 pounds of ground feed. I fed some new corn, too, and she sure liked that and the chickens helped her eat her feed, too. 'Black Beauty weighed 59 pounds when I got her, one month later 1071/2 pounds, second month 1521/2 pounds and third month 213 pounds and before the fair 235 pounds. I think I did fairly well with my pig and I am satisfied. I took first prize in the gilt club and second in the open class. This concludes my story."

At U. of Iowa: Correspondance indicates that Irv lived in the quad. In 1930, room 93B and in 1933, in room 32B. A note, scribbled in Ed Swensrud's handwriting, indicates the cost of Irv's second year at the U. of Iowa:

"Expense Irving Second yr in college $515. + $15.30 = $530.30. Had $107.05 own money"

Paper: Peoria Journal Star, The (IL) Deceased: IRVING SWENSRUD Date: November 10, 1994 GALESBURG -- Irving E. Swensrud, 81, of 562 N. Academy St. died at 7:11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1994, at Rosewood Care Center.

Born Jan. 2, 1913, in Worth County, Iowa, to Edward and Belle Breiseth Swensrud, he married Amy Prall on Sept. 9, 1936. She survives.

Also surviving are one daughter, Mary Barbara McCoy of Alpharetta, Ga.; one half brother, Sidney of Naples, Fla.; one half sister, Stella Anderson of Buffalo, Minn.; and one grandson.

He was a salesman for Pure Oil Co., Barber Oil Co. and Unocal Oil Co. He then was self-employed in the wholesale oil business, retiring in 1985. He was a member of First Christian Church in Galesburg and its bowling league. He was a member of Lake Bracken Country Club in Galesburg.

Services will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday at his church. The Rev.

David Seitz will officiate. Visitation will be one hour before services at the church. Burial will be in Maquon Cemetery in Maquon. Arrangements are by Hinchliff-Pearson-West Galesburg Chapel.

Memorials may be made to his church. Section: OBITUARIES Page: D7 Copyright (c) 1994 The Peoria Journal Star, Inc.

Irving inherited farm land from his father. A note written by Stella says that her father bought Irving's farm of 150 acres for $40. an acre in 1938 or so.

1. ↑ Diploma, Northwood HS.