Everett Leonard Eckberg was born on February 8, 1918 on the Ola Olson farm near New Bedford, in Fairfield Township, Bureau County, Illinois. He was the seventh of eleven children born to Olof L. and Ida Magdalena (Almstrom) Eckberg, both of whom had immigrated from Sweden to America in the very early part of the 1900's. Everett grew up on the various farms the family rented through the 1920's and 1930's, and during that time he attended the local community schools. He graduated from Wyanet Community High School in 1936.
After completing high school Everett found employment with the Diller Implement Company in Princeton, Illinois. On October 13, 1940, he was married to Jennie Ruth Lindner in Clinton, Iowa. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emile Lindner of Tiskilwa, Illinois. A few years, later when his father retired from farming in 1943, because his last son at home had been drafted into the Army, Everett bought his father's farming equipment and began farming north of Princeton, in Bureau County, Illinois. He and Jennie Ruth lived on and farmed there for the next forty years, retiring from farming in 1983.
Everett and Jennie Ruth had a family of five children born to them; four boys and a girl. Richard Leonard was born June 2, 1942, Ruth JoAnn was born May 23, 1943, James Everett was born October 4, 1945, and twin boys, Dewey Leslie and Dennis Leland were born August 18, 1957. Everett and Jennie Ruth celebrated fifty years of marriage on October 13, 1990, with an open house which was hosted by their children.
Besides his knowledge and interest in agriculture, Everett was also an avid outdoorsman, and loved to hunt, fish and trap. He spent many pleasant hours fishing and setting out trotlines for catfish in the nearby Hennipen Canal.
Everett died suddenly on March 30, 1993 at the Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton. He was buried in Elm Lawn Memorial Park in Princeton. On September 8, 1998, Jennie Ruth followed, and she was buried with Everett in Elm Lawn.
To read more about Everett, find him in the Genealogy section of this web site and go to the 
section in his part of the family tree.
To see an album of pictures from Everett and Jennie Ruth's family, go to the Family Album below.
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