Lilyquist Beginnings by John Lilyquist

Segrid, Ernest,Margaret
Helen and Marvin

Ernest Lilyquist was born on 24 January 1886 near Canby, Hammer Township, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota.  His parents were Charles Victor Liljequist and Antonette Baardseth.  They lived about two miles northwest of Canby, and the birth was officially registered on 2 November 1886.

The family moved to Duluth in 1889, where they owned a home at 2324 West 8th Street.  One of his good friends was Arthur Anderson from down the street, who died in his late teens of tuberculosis.  A life-long friend was Christine Sutherlund, a neighbor at 2322 W. 8th Street.  Christine and her daughter Ruth would be part of Lilyquist holidays and celebrations for the rest of their lives.  Tillie, Christine’s half-sister, would married Otto Abrahamson, Segrid’s brother.  Another buddy from the neighborhood was Ted Linnea.

Ernest graduated from the eighth grade at Duluth’s Lincoln School, according to family tradition.  By 1900, his name appears in the Duluth City Directory, with occupations of messenger at Panton and White (1900), messenger (1901-02), clerk at I Freimuth (1902-03), clerk at L.W. Leithhead Drug Company (1903-04), painter (1904-05), packer at L.W. Leithhead (1905-06), and checker (1906-07) and assistant foreman
(1907-08) for the DMN Docks.  He also talked about working downtown for the Duluth Glass Block in his early years, and told of going to the waterfront to watch the Mataafa sink in that terrible lake storm of 1905.  He and a friend, Charles J. Linblom, billed themselves as the Lili-Lin Brothers, Tumblers and Aerial Ring Performers.  They almost left to join the circus, Ernest would later relate.  Through these years, he lived with his parents on West Eighth Street.  It was a good neighborhood:  I grew up there in the 1940s and 1950s, at 2415 West Eighth Street.

About the time he and Segrid married in 1908, Ernest was transferred by the DMN Railroad to Eveleth, where daughter Helen was born.  They returned to Duluth and the ore docks in 1910.  He never owned a car, but Marvin said he thought about buying one in 1927.  He walked to work at the ore docks (daily, for 12 hour shifts, in the early years).  When the railroad was on strike, he would climb the docks, away from the
pickets, and walk the tracks to his job.  He retired from the DM&IR after 47 years of service in 1953.

Ernest was very handy with woodworking tools, making knickknacks and spice cabinets.  He gave haircuts to his children and grandchildren, including my brother and me.  He hunted prior to marriage, but not after because Segrid was afraid of guns.  At times, during family gatherings, he would bring out his flute and play a few notes.  His
handwriting was round and readable, right out of a penmanship textbook. His health was very good - he was never a hospital patient until he had non-malignant prostate surgery a few months before his death.

He died in his living room chair of heart failure at the age of 85 on 16 April 1971.  The funeral was held in the Fred Olson Mortuary Chapel (“Better an overfilled mortuary than a half-filled church,” said his widow) and he is buried in Park Hill Cemetery in the Last Supper Section.
Segrid Ovedia Abrahamson was born at Nedre Kran, Tangen Parish, Drammen, Norway on 21 October 1889.  She was the daughter of Oluf Abrahamson and Christiana Sophia Ingebretson.

She emigrated with her mother, grandfather, and three brothers to Duluth in 1893.  Duluth City Directories first show the Abrahamsons living at 1818 West 3rd (1895-96, 1896-97, 1897-98 Directories), at 200 Garfield Avenue (1898-99 and 1900 Directories), and at 1705 Piedmont Avenue (1901-1905 Directories).  I also found, in the 1907-08 Duluth City Directory, one Sigurd Abrahamson, domestic, living at 631 North 56th Avenue West.  She attended Adams School, on 17th Avenue West and
Superior Street, and was confirmed on 8 May 1904 By Pastor Gjortholm in Zion Lutheran Church.  We have a picture postcard of Drammen addressed to “Miss Sigrid Abrahamsen, 1705 West Piedemont Ave, Duluth, Minnesotta, Amerika.”  It is postmarked 28 April 1904, Draman and 29 April 1904, Kristiania (Oslo, today).  A short message congratulating her on her Confirmation is written in Norwegian and signed by Esq A. Abrahamsen (most probably Anders Abrahamsen, Oluf's older brother.

Segrid loved flowers and was active in local garden clubs and the Girl Scouts for many years.  She was an excellent cook, and her family met at her house for Saturday afternoon coffee until she moved to Lake Haven Manor Nursing Home in 1980.

She died a few days after her 91st birthday at Lake Haven Nursing Home in Duluth on 24 October 1980.

Ernest and Segrid were married 8 June 1908 in Duluth by the pastor of the Swedish Mission Church, but were probably not married in the church itself.  The marriage license was signed by Ernest’s brother and future sister-in-law, Ted and Gertrude.  (Family lore says that Segrid's brother and sister-in-law, Carl and Levina Abrahamson, were the witnesses at the wedding.)  Ernest’s job at the railroad called them to Eveleth in 1908, and they returned to Duluth in 1910, residing at 324 Restormel.

They moved into their permanent, two-bedroom home at 2311 West 11th Street in 1914.  Ernest’s mother lived with them following the death of his father in 1916.  She occupied the front bedroom, the three girls slept in the back bedroom, Marvin slept on a cot in the upstairs hallway, and Ernest and Segrid occupied the small room off the main floor dining room.  The original house had a small kitchen on the northwest corner of the house, which was later expanded to the full width of the house.

Ernest was not a member of a church, but the children attended Sunday School at First Covenent Church (Swedish Mission Church) in the West End.  Segrid had belonged to Zion Lutheran Church.  She joined First Covenent Church after Ernest’s death.

Ernest and Segrid had six children, and raised a niece following the death of her mother: