Frederick Burstrom, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Frederick Burstrom
FREDERICK BURSTROM was born June 17, 1826, in Sweden, and is the youngest of ten children born to Andrew and Caroline (Linburg) Burstrom. The elder Burstrom took the degree of M. D., but never practiced, which both were well educated. The grandfather, Burstrom, was a government ship-builder, but lost everything in one of the Russo-Swedish wars. When twenty-one years of age, Frederick Burstrom left home. He had received a collegiate education, but on account of his father's old age, he was persuaded to superintend his father's tannery for about four years; he then came to the United States and settled in Chicago, engaged at his trade, but he soon had to stop the work, and came to Bailly Town and lumbered for about two years. He bought about 100 acres of land and began farming; he has since lived on this land, with the exception of three years in Illinois, engaged in the grocery business with a brother-in-law. In 1879, he spent six months visiting in Europe. He enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served in ponton service and guarding in almost all the Souther State for eleven months. His farm is all improved and excellent land, and has been brought from its primitive state by himself. He is a member of the Swedish Lutheran church, and has been an active worker in temperance. He was Trustee for two years, and is now County Commissioner, He has always been a Republican. Mr. Burstrom was amount Westchester's first settlers. He was married, in 1848, to Catherine Westrond, a native of Sweden.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 293
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook