Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.
S.
G. Nordstrom, M. D.
Dr.
S. G. Nordstrom, who for more than a quarter of a century has successfully
engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery, being now located at Sioux
Rapids, was born in Henry county, Illinois, November 8, 1869. His parents,
Samuel and Magdalena Nordstrom, were both natives of Sweden, coming to America
in 1840, in which year they settled in Galesburg, Illinois. There they resided
until 1866, when they removed to Andover, Henry county, and later to Webster
county, Iowa, the father purchasing government land near Dayton, for which he
paid a dollar and a quarter per acre. Not a furrow had been turned nor an
improvement made upon the place, but with characteristic energy he began
breaking the sod and tilling the soil. He was a blacksmith by trade and while
developing his farm he also carried on the smithy at Dayton. There he spent his
remaining days, reaching the advanced age of ninety-one years, his death
occurring in 1906. The mother died in 1897 when seventy-seven years of age, her
death resulting from an accident. The Nordstroms come from a long lived race, an
aunt of our subject now living in Jasper county, Iowa, at more than one hundred
years of age. The brothers and sisters of F. G. Nordstrom are: Nels Peter, now
deceased; John, a druggist at Dayton, Iowa; Frank, who is a train conductor in
New Mexico; Helen, deceased; Anna Matilda, who resides in California; and Clara,
who has also passed away.
After
mastering the early branches of learning in the public schools Dr. Nordstrom
became a student in Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, and having thus
acquired a good literary education to serve as a foundation for professional
knowledge he became a student in Rush Medical College in Chicago, in 1881 and
took a course in an Ohio College, the Electic Medical Institute from which he
graduated in 1888. He then opened an office in Dayton, Iowa, where he remained
until 1889 when he went to Omaha, Nebraska, practicing in that city for one
year. In 1890 he arrived in Sioux Rapids, where he established a lucrative
practice and became known as one of the most skillful and successful physicians
of the northwest. In order to still further perfect himself in his chosen
calling he pursued a post-graduate course of study in New York city in 1895.
Reading has also kept him in touch with the trend of modern methods in medical
and surgical practice and his labors have been attended with gratifying success.
On
the 1st of June, 1898, Dr. Nordstrom was married to Miss Nellie E. Burnham, a
daughter of Rollin and Laura (Judson) Burnham, the former a native of New York
and the latter of Connecticut. They arrived in Iowa in 1870, settling in Hardin
county and in 1872 removed to Storm Lake. Dr. and Mrs. Nordstrom have an infant
child but lost their daughter Harriet, their first born, at the age of seven
years.
The
Doctor belongs to Ashland Lodge, No. 111, A. F. & A. M., of Fort
Dodge, and also the Elks of that place. He attends the Congregational
church and gives his political support to the republican party. His
life has been well spent in the faithful performance of the duties which
each day brings and in his professional career he manifests not only
a laudable ambition to obtain success coupled with an interest in scientific
investigation but also that broad humanitarian spirit without which
the medical practitioner never gains highest rank.