Ever since we moved into the house, Robyn has wanted me to research the history of the house and its residents. The Ramsey County Historical Society has records available in downtown St. Paul but I haven't had time to do the digging. Robyn kept saying wouldn't it be cool if someone famous lived here.
CNN had an article on its website which talked about how to find out the history of your home from the 1940 census records... I'd never thought of that. All of my ancestors whose census records had been released lived in the country so I wasn't aware, or never noticed, that census records had actual street addresses.
So off to the 1940 census site I went.
I was able to narrow the records I needed to sift through down to about 56 pages. And then I had to search for our street and house number (it was interesting to see addresses that had been wiped out by the building of Interstate 94.) Forty or so pages in, I hit paydirt...
In 1940, Lauren E. Iverson, age 41, his wife Grace, age 30, and son, Russell A., age 3 lived in our house. Grace, born in Minnesota, had completed 8 years of school. Lauren, born in Wisconsin, had completed 3 years of high school and worked as meter installer for the power and light company. They had lived in the house on April 1, 1935 according to the 1940 census.
Lauren, along with his brother Howard C., was a WWI veteran, maybe a Marine. On the Ramsey County Honor roll, they are listed as being from just a few blocks away at 697 Conway.
Now that I realized this information was captured by census records, I logged into my Ancestry.com account to look at the 1930 census records. They weren't as extensive as the 1940 records and I quickly found that...
In 1930, our house was owned by William M Benson, age 63, and his wife Cora, age 59. They had gotten married at ages 22 and 18 respectively. Cora was born in Georgia. Her father was born in Virginia and her mother in North Carolina. William immigrated to the US in 1883 from Sweden and met Cora in Georgia. He worked as a marble worker; ealier census records listed him as a stone cutter.
That probably explains the stone fireplace in the basement and the outdoor fireplace in our backyard.
The Benson's are found at this same address in the 1920 and 1910 census records. I suspect they are the original residents and builders. I identified three children from the census records: Mabel, Thomas H. and Walter J. In 1900, William, Cora, and infant Thomas lived at 545 Park St next door to W.S. and Caroline Kellogg.
Back to the Iverson's...
Lauren and Grace had three children that I was able to identify: The eldest, Russell A. who was about 6 months younger than my dad, Bruce Gordon and Nancy Ellen. Lauren, a 2nd generation American, was the son of Iver Lars Iverson and Elenor. He passed away in 1960.
Grace's full name was Grace Elizabeth, the same name as my deceased granddaughter. Her mother was Katherine Schnittger. Her father was Charles J. Burger and her grandfather was Joseph Burger, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. She passed away in 1983.
Charles and Katherine had 7 children: Lawrence E., Carol L., Carl Allan, Warren Earl, Paul J., John D. and Grace Elizabeth.
There is Robyn's historical connection.
Grace Elizabeth Burger Iverson's brother was Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. On a side note, My sister, Tammy, told me that she and her husband, Wade, were visiting Arlington National Cemetery on the day of his funeral but were not allowed to attend as it was not open to the public.
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