Saturday, April 28, 2012

New Acquisitions


Gust Borgreen letter 19 Nov 1929
 Nathanial Baldwin Incorporated
Radio Head-sets, Loud Speakers, Sensitive Telephone Receivers
502 Deseret Bank Building
Salt Lake City, Utah
November 19, 1929

Mr. Gust Borgreen,
709 Second Avenue South
Great Falls, Montana

Dear Sir:

We acknowledge receipt of your application for 100 shares of the stock of the Nathaniel Baldwin Incorporated, at $4.00 per share, and your remittance in connection there-with of Check $200.00 and Note $200.00.

The Columbia Trust Company of this City, will forward to you, upon payment of the above note at our offices, 502 Deseret Bank Building, Salt Lake City, Trustee Certification covering the number of shares for which you subscribed.

You will be interested to know that Mr. Nathaniel Baldwin, President of the Company, is advising his friends to hold on to their stock as he confidently believes this stock will become very valuable.

Thank you for your interest and your subscription, we are
Very truly yours,
FOR OMEGA INVESTMENT COMPANY


Carl Borgreen High School diploma 31 Jul 1925

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Titanic Sinks

source unknown

Don't many of us have a Titanic tale in our family history? Our family story goes something like this; William H. Johnstone came over in April 1912. Family lore has his wife and children turned away at the docks due to Ellen Johnstone being too sick to travel. It all seemed so romantic until the ships' passenger lists were found and the math was done. William did come over in April of 1912. In fact, he came one week before the Titanic disaster, arriving on 7 Apr 1912. He disembarked in Halifax Nova Scotia, not New York and he traveled on the ship Grampian, of the Allan Shipping Line.

In June of 1913, Mary Alice, Stephen (age 3), and Ellen (age 1) Johnstone and Mary Alice's mother Mary Coleman, came to Quebec on the ship Laurentic, of the White Star Line.

 It seems that the horrific news of the sinking of the Titanic at nearly the same time William was sailing would have sent shivers of fear through the family. I think that the story probably grew and morphed over the years, like a game of telephone. The fact that Steve and Ellen were so small probably contributed to the misunderstanding. An interesting fact about the Laurentic; on 25 Jan 1917, it was sunk by a mine off the north coast of Ireland with a loss of 350 lives. I'm not sure if this factors into the family lore, but it's worth noting.