Village of Strum, Trempealeau County, WI

"Strum, Wisconsin from the air in 2003 Picture by Jerry Berg of Kasson, Minnesota. This picture by Jerry Berg of Kasson, Minnesota. Jerry is from the northern Trempealeau County area, Osseo, and this picture was taken while flying in from the Dodge Center, Minnesota airport for the Viking Flying Club flight breakfast in 2003. He and my cousin, Mike Berg of Eleva, are pilots, as are a number of people around Strum. Jerry went to school in Osseo with Mike's wife, Judy Deinhammer." Jerry's paternal grandfather, Evan Berg, was born in Norway in 1877 about the same time (1879) as my grandfather, Helfred Matson, but not the same area. Jerry's grandmother, Julia, was born southwest of Madison, Wisconsin, putting her birth in the midst of strong Norwegian settlements. Evan is believed to have worked in the Strum Creamery and later the family moved to a farm in Clear Creek Township, Eau Claire County, just 5 miles northeast of Strum. Although a different county, these are Strum people two. Evan died in 1925 and is buried in St. Paul's Cemetery in Strum. Erlan Berg is Jerry's father. To my knowledge and theirs, Mike Berg and Jerry Berg are not related. Berg, like Olson, is a common name in this area, as one might expect. A few notes about this picture: You are looking southwest at Strum from Jerry Berg's airplane. County Highway D, runs due north and south along the west border of Crystal Lake and Dam. The Beef River flows west (toward the top and through the trees). Just right of the north end of the lake in what appears to be a clearing, is St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery and to its right, U. S. Highway 10. Directly in front of you at the bottom of this picture is the west end of Viking Skyline Golf Course. To the left of the golf course is Crystal Lake Park (camping, recreational vehicle spots) and the lake. County D runs south through the main business sector of Strum. Woodland Park (picnic, swimming, swings) borders the top left (south) quarter of Crystal Lake in this picture and Immanuel Lutheran Church borders it to the south. Middle left is Blade Millwork, you can tell from the lumber piles. While my parent's Millwork Business was a forerunner to this operation this one dwarfs ours in comparison. Just above Blade Millworks is Fori Spangberg (baseball) Field. Strum is in Unity Township but the farmland at the top of this picture is both in Unity and Albion Townships. Draw a line from the group of trees under the clouds in the top right of the picture to about the top left corner of this picture. The area above that is part of Albion Township. I hope you get the sense from this picture that the countryside is hilly, because it is. Rolling hills and valleys and crooked country roads are part of the personality of this area of northern Trempealeau County. Continuing along U.S. Highway 10 east (on the right side of the picture), directly toward you at the bottom of the picture, for another four miles or so, are the northeast land Sections of the Town of Unity. Along this direction on the way to Osseo (9 miles east of Strum) is Section 11 of the Town of Unity. The east half of Section 11 was at one time owned by Lina Paulson (Nicoline Paulsdatter) & her husband, Andrew Anderson and by Andrew Anderson's brothers. Andreas Paulsen, brother of Lina, at one time owned a small part of what was the Bolling farm and is still in that family with Barb & Dan Adams. Andreas and his wife, Marie Olsen, lived most of their lives in Fillmore County, Minnesota. They arrived in the Town of Unity in later years. He may have been all or partially blind then. Ragna Matson (sister of Helfred Matson) & Nick Paulson lived in the same Section. There is no currently known relation between the two Paulson (Paulsen) families." Fred Matson September 23, 2003 (updated January 27, 2006)