JOHN AUGUST BORGSTOM
SEP. 19, 1866 - JUNE 7, 1957
John Borgstrom came to America in 1897. He first worked in a Blacksmith shop
in Kansas and then moved to Elk City, Okla. where he met and married Jessie
Miller (my Mother's sister in 1903).
He then moved to Oklahoma City in 1906 and continued as a blacksmith for several
years.
In the early teens he worked as a mechanic with Otto for Page Motor Co.
In 1920, John and Jessie, Otto and Henrietta, Clara and her son Buster and my dad returned to Sweden for a visit.
John had a lot of heartache in his life. He and Jessie lost a daughter, Ilda, to diphtheria in 1907. Ilda was 1 ½ yrs. old. Also, in the 20's John developed a hip condition and started taking steam baths to help the condition. He went to a steam bath and the owner forgot him and left the building. John was hospitalized for months and it left him with a stiff hip. In 1930, his wife Jessie had a stroke and died.
John and Jessie had four surviving daughters: Charlotte, Alma, Gertrude and Flossie.
John was an excellent blacksmith, metal temperer and carpenter and could devise almost anything.
John was a very devout Christian. He was the only one of the brothers who used no form of tobacco and never would you hear him use any form of curse words. I always felt he and my mother were very instrumental in influencing my dad.
John invented many things in his life, yet never applied for a patent. Had he, there is no doubt in my mind he would have become a very wealthy man. One of the things he invented was the locks used on Fruehoff trailers today. There were numerous other things such a special tools, etc. All one needed to do was tell him what was needed and the "cogs started clicking." He was quite a remarkable man.
When I was a boy, 10 or 12 years of age, he made me a machine gun from a block of wood. It had wooden bullets and would shoot across the room some 12 feet or more. I treasured this but I don't know what happened to it through the years.
In the early 1940's, he lost his right thumb and first finger on a table saw. I remember it well but I don't know the exact details.
He was employed by the A & B Garage and straightened car frames, did body work and made special tools.
After the closing of the A & B Garage, he worked for a commercial trailer manufacturing Co. in Oklahoma City building the insulated trailer until his retirement.
He had great ingenuity. His right leg and hip were stiff and when he drove a car, this leg extended over into the passenger side. He devised an accelerator linkage on his 1936 Dodge where he could operate it with his stiff leg.
He could also clutch and brake with his left foot.
He also developed a gadget to tie his show on the right foot. He got the idea
from bundle knoters on grain binders.
John remarried a lady named Ida in 1936 - everyone feels this was a mistake.
They never got along. John died of a heart attack in 1957, his wife Ida left
Oklahoma City and no one ever heard from her again. John is buried in Elk City,
Okla.
John stand under horse shoe
Flossie Alma Gertrude
Jessie
Al (1919) with big brother Otto.
John on the right.