To a great extent the gratifying degree of prosperity which reflects from the broad and smiling acres of Sac county, Iowa, is due to the honest industry, the sturdy persistence, the unswerving perseverance and the wise economy which characterize that portion of the farming element of this county which traces its origin to the land of Sweden, across the sea.
Gust Hammerstrom, residing on his farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section 19 of Wheeler township, Sac county, Iowa, has made something of a name for himself as a breeder of live stock. He favors the Shorthorn breed and keeps on hand twelve animals of this pure strain, having at the present time about fifty head altogether. He also has about seventy-five hogs and makes a specialty of the Chester White strain, supplying the demands of the breeders in Sac, Crawford and Ida counties.
Mr. Hammerstrom was born in Sweden on January 20, 1869, being a son of John and Anna Hammerstrom, both of whom died in their native country. The elder Hammerstrom was a farmer in that country, and Gust was, therefore, reared on a farm, coming to America in 1889, when twenty years of age. He located first in Minneapolis, where he remained only for a short time and then came to Wall Lake and thence to the southwestern portion of Sac county. Here he engaged in farm work for some time, and in 1892 went to Denver, Colorado, where he secured employment with the street railway company of that city. He remained there for two years, returning to this county, where for six years, he rented farming lands. About the year 1900 he saw his way clear to make an investment in land for himself and purchased a tract containing eighty acres, lying across the line in Ida county, for which he paid fifty dollars per acre. This he sold in the spring of 1909 at one hundred and forty dollars per acre, when he purchased his present farm, for which he paid one hundred and thirty-five dollars per acre. Since obtaining possession of this land he has greatly improved it and today it stands worth much more than the amount at which he obtained it. For a time he and his brother, August, owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Union county, South Dakota, but after retaining it for about three years they disposed of it to advantage.
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On December 11, 1891, Mr. Hammerstrom was united in marriage with Emma Linquist, born in Sweden, the daughter of Jonas Anderson and Caroline Larson, who came to America in the fall of 1888 and located in Ida county. To their union have been born five sons and one daughter. Roy, the eldest, is a student at the Ames Agricultural College and has studied at the Sac City Institute, having also completed courses at the Buena Vista College. The other members of the family, namely: Ralph, a student in the Denison University, Russell, Howard, Wesley and Garnett remain under the parental roof. Mr. Hammerstrom is a man who keeps himself fully informed on current events, and at the birth of the Progressive party he endorsed the platform laid down by its leaders. His religious affiliation is with the Swedish Baptist church at Arthur, and he is considered one of the best members of that society.
It would be impossible to touch fully upon the struggles of the earlier years Gust Hammerstrom passed in this country and the many hardships he endured in order to get a start, but his later successes have justified whatever sacrifices he may have made at the beginning. He is a man of sterling qualities of character, even-tempered, patient and scrupulously honest in all the relations of life, hospitable and charitable, and he has gained the approval and high esteem of his fellow citizens because of his upright life.
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