Prof. Ole Anton Bernhard Sparboe (1871-1897)

SPARBOE

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/28/2025 at 18:45:57

From Jewell Record April 29, 1897 (page 5)

Obituary.

Professor Ole Anton Bernhard Sparboe was born in Dyro, Norway, October 8, 1871, just three days after the death of his father, whose name he bore. At the age of two years he came with his mother and brothers to this country and located in Hamilton county, Iowa, where they have since had their home. He attended the common school in his home district until the age of fifteen and made such rapid progress that he concluded to enter the Dexter Normal College, Dexter, Iowa, where he attended until he was able to teach. After having taught with good success for several terms, he went to Minneapolis where he took up commercial work making a specialty out of penmanship. After the he was employed as book-keeper for a Randall firm at Randall, Iowa, for several months, but finding this work a little too monotonous he went to Des Moines where he studied penmanship under the noted penman, S. M. Thornburgh at the Iowa Business College; at the same time he also studied the plans and methods of book=keeping of the larger business firms in that city. In the fall of the same year he took first premium for an exhibit of fin pen work at the Iowa State Fair, seven different states being represented by their best penmen. In the fall of '92 he and his brother Hartvig opened the Story City Business College, and carried on the work in the same for two years, when the deceased, Prof. Sparboe accepted a position as principal of a business college at Marshall, Mich. In the spring of the same year he was taken sick with lung trouble and had to give up his work. The greater part of the following summer he spent in recreation and travel, especially among the mountains of Pennsylvania, and at the same making his expenses teaching penmanship at Carbondale, Penn. In the fall of '95 he was chosen director of the commercial department of the Jewell Lutheran College which position he held until February '96, when his failing health compelled him to again give up his work and hold his bed for some time. During his short stay at this college he formed the acquaintance and intimate friendship of Prof. C. R. Hill, who suffered from the same disease, and for a while it seemed as though the two friends should go hand in hand into the grave. But, by sheer force of will, as it seemed, Mr. Sparboe succeeded in shaking off the disease once more and thus survived his friend by just one year. As soon as his health would permit he went to Valders, Norway, where he stayed until October and thence to Ness in Romenke where he died March 30, '97. In a letter of the same date was enclosed this note: "I have terrible bleeding from my lungs. It is not impossible that this will end me." These few words together with his love for all were so poorly written as to be hardly legible, and were probable the last feeble effort of the once so accomplished artist and penman. His favorite occupation during his stay in Norway was playing his violin and sketching amid the beautiful mountain scenery. Shortly before his death he was preparing an article on Norwegian Literature and Art with illustrations, intended for New York magazine, but whether or not this was completed is not yet known. In all his work Mr. Sparboe showed the greatest honesty and integrity and a will power that surmounted almost any obstacle. Whatever he undertook he would master, and master thoroughly. It is said that he had almost a mania for independent work and this it was that made him the man he was. In society he was rather quiet and reserved but at the same time frank, open and cordial. In his classes he always commanded the respect of his pupils by his natural dignity and thorough scholarship. His work in music as well as in art showed an original soul. It is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to such a character and consign him with all his accomplishments into the arms of mother earth, and yet we cannot but hope that his soul that was so keenly alive to ail the beauties of this world below, may also have found an eye for the grander and still more beautiful things beyond, and wings on which to rise to a more perfect union with the Father of all life and truth, and beauty. The remains will probably be removed in the near future to Dyro, Norland where his father is buried.