Flora Hilborn Sandberg was born October 10, 1856 at Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Celia Pond and Edwin Hilborn; her mother was a member of the pioneer Pond family that settled in Wisconsin in 1847. Flora attended Lawrence College in Kansas, then taught in Appleton, Wisconsin and faced a primary room full of tiny tots, eighty in all. The janitor with the mop was as busy as she. She taught in this area for many years, then was asked to teach a summer school at Leal, North Dakota by her uncle John Hilborn, whose family had settled there from Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada. There Flora met John Sandberg and they were married June 27th, 1887. John Sandberg was on a claim at Dazey (which no longer exists) near Rogers, North Dakota. He had settled there while the area was still a territory, with his father, Gustave Sandberg and family. John went around with petitions for several things to be included in the state constitution, including prohibition. John built a new home for his bride and they were very happy and prosperous when John discovered he had a bad case of consumption, now known as tuberculosis. He immediately sold his farm and moved his family, consisting of a boy and four little girls, to Ojai, California; but it was too late and John passed away in 1896 and is buried in the cemetery there.
Mrs. Sandberg caught the Rocky Mountain fever and had to get down at once into the valley and was taken to the hospital at Ventura, California. The Salvation Army came to her rescue and took care of her little family of five. She never forgot this wonderful demonstration of Christian love and vowed she would repay them somehow, a vow which she amply fulfilled later on. She decided to return to North Dakota to teach, and taught for awhile in the city schools at Valley City under Superintendent Barnes. Later she bought a farm home where there was a school house right next door, which made it very convenient. As her older children became ready for higher schooling, she sold the home, at Lisbon, and bought a house in Valley City. As she wisely expressed it, she could not afford to send her children to college but she could move to a college town.
She later taught at the Crow Indian reservation in the Crow Indian Agency, in Montana. She was a missionary as well as a teacher. Due to her Christian work she persuaded the Chief to give his little son a Christian burial in the ground instead of putting the body in a tree or on a platform. She paid her vow to the Salvation Army by working for three years as an Envoy in Bismarck, North Dakota, serving in the state penitentiary by holding religious services (and also in Fort Lincoln Chapel). She kept her home in Valley City until the time of her death, July 1, 1933. Several volumes of her poems were also published.
The oldest child was Homer, born in 1888 at Rogers, North Dakota. He lived in Valley City and became district manager with Imperial Oil Co. in Manitoba. Her daughter Martha married Robert Burns and lived in Assinaboia, Saskat. They retired in Victoria, British Columbia, where both passed away. Another daughter, Claire, attended Valley City Normal School, married W. H. Yardley, an immigration officer; and they lived for many years in Victoria, B.C. She became a member of the Poets Chapel Club and had many poems published and became known as the children's poetess of Canada. Della married Jack Bennett and now lives near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Eva graduated from the State Normal School in 1913, taught school in Portal North Dakota and also in Valley City. She married Donald A. McArthur, a Locomotive Supervisor and they had five children. They retired in Rosemead, California. The oldest boy, Bruce, became an inventor and commercialized induction heating units, to the extent that they now have plants in Japan, England and Canada as well as the U.S. June (Mrs. John Emo) resides in Davis, California; Claire (Forbes) lives in Visalia. Eva now lives in Davis, California.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 212