Herman
Theodore Seaborg, the son of Swedish
immigrants, worked as a mechanic in Ishpeming, Michigan. He married
Selma Erickson, who had been born in
Grangesburg, in the Dalarna region of Sweden.
In 1912 their son, Glenn Seaborg was
born. He worked his way through college as a stevedore, fruit-packer
and laboratory assistant. Seaborg became professor at the University
of California in 1945 and six years later was awarded the Nobel prize
for his discovery of plutonium and his research into transuranic elements.
(1)
Glenn Seaborg wrote about his father
in his autobiography, Life of Glen Seaborg (1982).
My father, Herman Theodore Seaborg, was also born in Ishpeming.
His parents came to Ishpeming in their youth and met and were married
there. His mother, Charlotta Wilhelmina Farrell (whose family name
was changed from Johnson or Anderson) came to Ishpeming in 1869 at
the age of nineteen from Örebro with her parents and brothers
and sisters. His father, Johan Erik Sjöberg (whose name was anglicized
to Seaborg) came to Ishpeming from Hällefors in 1867 at the age
of 23. Johan, like his father, who was the Master Mechanic at the
Hällefors iron works, and like his son (my father), was a machinist.
As I recall my father telling me, he came over as a steerage passenger
in a cargo ship. Johan Erik had as a friend at the Hällefors
Iron Works the grandfather of the Swedish Nobel Prize winner The Svedberg,
so I suspect that the name The and my middle name Theodore have a
common origin.
Ishpeming had typical sections that were nearly all Swedish and it
was in one of these that we lived. Since my father was fluent in Swedish
and this was my mother's native tongue, the Swedish language was spoken
in my home as it was throughout this community. I learned to speak
and understand Swedish before I did English, but I am afraid that
in the intervening years my facility with the language has declined.
I attended the Ishpeming public schools until I was ten years old
and starting the fifth grade. Then my family, which included my younger
sister Jeanette, moved to Home Gardens, now a part of South Gate,
California (near Los Angeles). This move was made largely at the urging
of my mother, who wanted to extend the horizon for her children beyond
the limit of opportunities available in Ishpeming. However, unlike
in Ishpeming, where he would have had guaranteed employment for life,
my father never found a permanent employment in his trade in California,
and our family found itself in continuing poor circumstances.
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