Berg, Thomas L.

Mr. Berg, born on the island of Fedje off the north coast of Norway on November 2, 1870, was the son of Lars Sjurson and Breta Thompson. Raised in a sturdy Norse environment where his family farmed small areas by hand and relied heavily on fishing, he grew up helping his father with both trades. At the age of seventeen, he began sailing along the coast and in the North and Baltic seas before a severe illness in Cardiff prompted him to change his path and immigrate to America. Arriving in Chicago on April 30, 1893, he navigated a period of great industrial unrest in Iowa before pushing further west to California in June 1895. Despite initially facing poor labor conditions and earning only five dollars per month on a Fresno farm, he resolved to become a rancher and purchased his first twenty-acre home place in 1897.

In 1900, Mr. Berg returned to Norway to marry his former schoolmate Nicolina Koppen, the daughter of a prominent island landowner, and the couple immediately returned to build their life together in Fresno County. Through their own unaided efforts, the family accumulated an additional ninety acres across three different ranches in the neighborhood of Oleander, focusing on raisin grapes and peaches. Their expanding prosperity allowed them to build a fine five thousand dollar home in 1908, where they raised their eight children named Lawrence, Thomas, Johanna, Bertha, Marie, Bjerney, Herald, and Norma. The family maintained a reputation for hospitality, participated actively as members of the Danish Lutheran Church, and supported the Republican party. Their highly successful agricultural enterprise stands as a brilliant testament to twenty-five years of industrious work and resilience in their adopted home.