Tombstone Tuesday – The Berggren Brothers

Gravestone of Erick and August Berggren, Ishpeming, Marquette, Michigan

Today’s Tombstone Tuesday is about the Berggren brothers, Lars Erick and Per August, who were killed mining iron ore in Ishpeming, Michigan, in 1889.

A widowed mother and Lars’ wife of four years, Mathilda Lind Berggren, were left to mourn. Mathilda was 25 when she was widowed. She never remarried, living with her mother-in-law, Lovisa Berggren, until Lovisa died in 1930. Mathilda died in 1932. 



They are all buried together in the city cemetery in Ishpeming, Marquette, Michigan. The inscriptions on the stone are in Swedish, but in addition to the all-important names and dates, all I could make out was “till minne av” (in memory of). The Swedish, the deteriorating sandstone, and the lichen obscured the rest.  

At the local historical society, I found the news article about the mine accident.

Daily Mining Journal, Marquette, Michigan, 18 Dec 1889, p. 6

When I first started doing genealogical research in my 20s, I wrote to my cousin who lived in the Upper Peninsula about our Swedish line. Vendla gave me a lot of important information, but much of her letter talked about friends of the family whose sons had been killed working in a mine. I wasn't even sure if they were family. After some digging at the courthouse and historical society, I now know how the Berggrens and the Larsons were related.

The women who mourned the rest of their long lives are buried in the same plot, but have no grave markers.