Lockley, Fred. "History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the Sea." Vol. 3. S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928. p. 559. A. W. NORBLAD Fred Lockley, after an interview with Mr. Norblad, printed in the Portland Daily Journal: "There is an unwritten rule laid down by highbrow writers that you should never start a story with the perpendicular pronoun. But rules were made to be broken, so I am going to start this story with the statement that -- "I was sitting in a big leather-covered easy chair in the lobby of the recently opened Hotel North Bend, at North Bend, Oregon. A tall, slender, dark haired chap dropped into the next chair. I gave him a casual glance and discovered that he was Al Norblad, of Astoria. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out some copy paper and said, 'I was wondering where I would get a story, and here it is. You are it; and, by the way, how does it come, since you are a Swede, that you have black hair?' "Mr. Norblad smiled and said, 'That's what we lawyers call a leading question. However, I am willing to tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so here goes. To do so I shall have to start my story with the coming of Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals, to Sweden. He was a typical Norman. He became Charles XIV of Sweden. His army of French soldiers -- dark haired, dark eyed and vivacious -- intermarried with the blue eyed, flaxen haired Swedish girls, and to this day the district where the French soldiers were quartered is reminiscent of Normandy and Picardy, through the presence of a large sprinkling of dark eyed and black haired Swedes, who take their language from their mother and their physical attributes from the dark haired soldiers of Napoleon. " 'On my father's side of the house all the men folks were in the army. My father's name was Youngberg. He enlisted in the same regiment and was assigned to the same company that his father was serving. In the Swedish army if two men of the same name join a company the younger of the two must take a new name, to prevent confusion; so my father took the first name that occurred to him, which was Norblad, which means "north leaf." My mother's people as far back as we can trace were well-to-do farmers in the province of Scania. Before my mother's marriage she was the manager of the largest dairy farm in Sweden. Mother is still living. She lives at Portland and for thirty years she has sat in an invalid chair. Under the old Swedish law the oldest son was required to take his father's first name. For example, suppose your father's name was Eric Anderson and you were the first son. Suppose you were christened Lars. Then your name would be Lars Ericson, in place of Lars Anderson, although all your brothers would retain the family name of Anderson. Suppose you named your eldest son Peter. His name would be Peter Larson in place of Ericson. I was named Albin W. Norblad, but we left Sweden when I was a little chap, so we did not follow the Swedish custom, and I retained the name of my father. " 'I was born at Malmo, Sweden. We settled at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where father followed his trade of brick mason. He had served twenty-five years in the Swedish army and did not take kindly to manual labor, so I began hustling to help earn the living. I was twelve years old when I struck out for myself. I sold papers in Chicago, peddled hot dogs at county fairs, played the clarinet in a circus, and drifted back and forth across the country until I found myself near my old home in Grand Rapids; so I stopped there and went to business college. I landed a job with a Grand Rapids furniture company and traveled through the country districts selling seats for country schools and pews for country churches. Later I worked for a plow company at Dixon, Illinois, and attended night school. I stayed with my night school until I had secured sufficient credits to allow me to enter the Chicago Law School. I worked my way through, graduated, and then passed the bar examination in 1902. During my law course I put in several years as police reporter for the Chicago American, and I want to say that four years as a reporter is as good as a college course, for you learn life first hand. I went to northern Michigan, hung out my shingle, and was soon appointed district attorney.. " 'I was married in 1906 to Miss Edna Cates at Escanaba, Michigan. In 1908 I came out to Oregon on legal business. I ran across an old-time friend, who invited me to visit him at Astoria. I did so, and while there I decided that Astoria was the place I had been looking for, so I went back to Michigan and packed up our household goods and shipped them to Astoria. Our first child, Walter, was six months old at the time. We have two children, Walter, fourteen, and Eleanor, eight years old. I certainly made no mistake in coming to Oregon. " 'I put in six years as city attorney of Astoria. I served as president of the Chamber of Commerce. The people of Astoria sent me back to Washington to appear before the rivers and harbors committees of Congress, and we secured a two million dollar appropriation for the construction of the north jetty. I did the legal work that converted Astoria from a city on stilts to a city on the level; for we made extensive fills and filled the tide lands. With others, I helped put over the Port of Astoria bill that has meant so much to our city. " 'One of the things I am proud of was securing from the grandson of John Jacob Astor, the founder of Astoria, a check for ten thousand dollars to start the fund for the Astoria Centennial exposition. He went down on the "Titanic" shortly thereafter. The people of my county have elected me to the legislature twice. Sometimes they meet their representatives at the gates of the city with a halter, but my constituents raised about one thousand dollars and presented me a solid silver service for protecting the rights of the fisherman against the interests that were trying to control the fishing industry. Yes, I like Astoria. And one thing is sure -- a man never gets anything or anywhere without working for it, and I have worked hard all my life.' " Of Mr. Norblad's children, Albin Walter, Jr., who was born in Michigan, attended New Mexico Military Academy, at Rosewell, New Mexico, during his freshman, sophomore and junior years, and graduated from the Astoria high school in 1926, winning a cup in oratory. He spent 1927 and 1928 at the University of Oregon, and in the latter year was elected junior member of the student council by the largest vote in the history of the university. In that same year he was one of the winners of the Jewett prize in oratory and was also elected national president of Intercollegiate Knights. As an unusual coincidence, it may be stated that Mr. Norblad was the first father in the history of Astoria to sign his own son's graduation diploma from Astoria high school, which occurred in 1926. Eleanor Lyle Norblad, who was born in Astoria April 29, 1914, is attending the junior high school in Astoria and is president of the Astoria Girl Reserves. Mr. Norblad will be president of the Oregon state senate during the session of 1929. He is a member of Temple Lodge, No. 7, A.F. & A.M.; Astoria Chapter, R. A. M.;Astoria Commandery, K. T.; and Oregon Consistory, No. 1, A. A. S. R. and Al Kader Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., at Portland. Of Astoria Lodge, B.P.O.E., he was exalted ruler in 1912; and of Astoria Lodge, K.P., was chancellor commander in 1921. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Norblad is a member of Fern Chapter, O.E.S. Transcriber's additional notes: Census 1900, June 11; Kent Co, MI; Grand Rapids Wd 7, p 48; 156 Peter Norblad, 49, Dec 1850, SWED, SWED, SWED, mar. 20 or 30 yrs, brick mason, owns home free, to US 1882, 8 mo. not employed Betsey, wife, 47, Dec 1852, SWED, SWED, SWED, mar 20 or 30 yrs, to US 1882, 3 children-3 living Albin, son, 19, March 1881, SWED, SWED, SWED, to US 1882, att. school Clara, dau, 17, Nov 1882, MI, SWED, SWED George, son, 14, July 1885, MI, SWED, SWED, att. school 1910, April 25; Clatsop Co, OR; Astoria Wd 3, Pct. 5, p 210; 739 Franklin Avenue Albin W. Norblad, head, 29, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, 1st mar, mar 3 yrs, attorney, own office, rents home, to US 1882, Nat. Edna L., wife, 26, WI, IA, WI, 1st mar, mar 3 yrs, 1 child-1 living George F., brother, 25, MI, Sweden, Sweden, single, asst. mgr, dairy A. Walter, son, 1 7/12, MI, Sweden, WI Grace S. Cates, s in l, 20, MI, IA, WI, single, stenographer, atty's office 1920, January 12; Clatsop Co, OR; Astoria Wd 3, p 210; 715 Grand Avenue Albin Norblad, 38, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, married, to US 1883, Nat. 1904, lawyer, law, owns home free Edna, wife, 36, WI, IA, WI Albin Jr., son, 11, MI, Sweden, WI, att. school Elelnor, dau, 5, OR, Sweden, WI Oregon State Archives: http://genealogy.state.or.us/ Bendstrup, Elizabeth & Norblad, Walter 11/14/1936 Marriage Clatsop County Norblad, Albin Walter 3/19/1881 Delayed Birth Clatsop Health 22530/51405 Norblad, Eleanor L & Sorrels, Ward 8/25/1938 Marriage Clatsop County Norblad, Karl Emil 7/1/1917 Portland Deaths no county Portland ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2007 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.