Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

Sivert A. Helsem

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

HELSEM BROS.
 
Prominent among the enterprising and thoroughly progressive business concerns of 
first importance in Sutter County, that have helped to place and keep Yuba City 
on the map, may well be mentioned the firm of Helsem Bros., of Yuba City, 
composed of Sivert A. and Charles Helsem, a firm well known to the motor world 
in Northern California.
Born near Aalesund, Stofjoren, Norway, on April 9, 1886, Sivert A. Helsem was 
educated in his native country, which has an enviable reputation for its 
schools.  Coming to California in 1904, he went first to Los Banos, then to 
Stockton, and thence to San Francisco; and having learned the machinist�s trade 
in Norway, he followed it here.  After that, he removed to Hamilton City, and in 
1913 came to Marysville and for seven years worked for the Yuba Manufacturing 
Company as foreman of the sheet metal department.  He was married in San 
Francisco to Miss Christene Anderson, born near Stockholm, Sweden.  She came to 
Stockton, Cal., when a year old, with her parents, and was educated in the 
public schools here.  Mr. and Mrs. Helsem have six children: Henry, Edwin, 
Charles, Erma, Norman and Harold.  In national political affairs, he leans 
toward the Republicans, but holds himself independent.
Charles Helsem was born in Norway on March 3, 1880, and was also educated amid 
the stimulating environments of that Northern clime.  He came to the United 
States at the age of twenty-one; and having become a journeyman blacksmith and 
machinist, he put in six years at Los Banos, then went to Stockton, and then to 
Kerman, Fresno County; and in 1914 he came to Marysville and entered the service 
of the Yuba Manufacturing Company, with which excellent concern he remained 
until 1920.  He belongs to the Odd Fellows Lodge and Encampment, and to the 
Rebekahs.  In politics he is a Republican.
In 1920, Helsem Bros. built their garage in Yuba City.  They have won an 
enviable reputation, doing all kinds of automobile and tractor work, with the 
assistance of three other expert workmen.  They have met with success, and 
recently have also built an adjoining concrete structure, which they rent as a 
store building.  They are fond of outdoor sport, and take the livest kind of 
interest in all that pertains to the development of Yuba City and Marysville, 
and the prosperity of Yuba and Sutter Counties in general, from both of which 
their increasing patronage comes.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1032