My Genealogy Hound

VICTOR I. VESTLING, M. D.
Dr. Victor I. Vestling, of Creston, was born in Topeka, Kansas, August 22, 1873. His father, Claus D. Vestling, a native of Sweden, came to the United States in 1867 and for a time was employed in a grocery store in Illinois. He had acquired a good education in his native country, winning a degree at Lund University. He studied with the intention of entering the ministry but after coming to the United States accepted the first employment that would yield him maintenance. On leaving the store, he entered a Swedish seminary at Paxton, Illinois, and was there ordained as a minister of the Swedish Lutheran church. This seminary is now Augustana College of Rock Island, Illinois. He served successively as pastor of the churches at Marshalltown, Iowa; Topeka, Kansas; Osage City, Kansas; and Ludington, Michigan, where his death occurred and where his widow is now living. In politics he was a republican. His wife, who in her maidenhood was Sophia Matilda Swanson, was born in Sweden and is now sixty-two years of age. She came to the United States in 1867, locating at Paxton, Illinois. She, too, belongs to the Swedish Lutheran church. Their family numbered eight children, of whom two are now deceased. Dr. Vestling is the eldest. Anna is the wife of Martin Forslind, a lumberman of Ontonagon, Michigan. Esther is a teacher of Ludington, Michigan. Axel E., a graduate of Yale, where he won the degree of Ph. D., was afterward a teacher of German for a year at Dartmouth College and is now instructor of German in Yale. Minnie A. is a music teacher and pipe organist at Ludington, Michigan. Albion R. is a salesman of Ludington.

Dr. Vestling attended the common schools of Osage, Kansas, and of Ludington, Michigan, spending two years as a high school student in the latter place. He entered Augustana College of Rock Island, Illinois, in 1890, and was graduated on the completion of the classical course in 1895 with the A. B. degree. He taught school in northern Michigan for a year, then took a post-graduate course in Augustana College in chemistry and other branches. He afterward taught for another year in the southern peninsula of Michigan and largely met the expense of his college course by teaching and by work in the lumber mills during vacations. In 1897 he entered the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Chicago and was graduated in 1901. He then located for practice in Marquette, Kansas, remaining a member of the profession until March, 1906, when he removed to Creston, where he has since practiced. He is also on the staff of physicians at Cottage Hospital.

Dr. Vestling was married in June, 1902, to Rose C. Roodell, who was born in Creston, in April, 1873, a daughter of John and Matilda Roodell, the former an early settler of Lincoln township, Union county. Dr. and Mrs. Vestling have a daughter, Ruth, born in March, 1903, and they also lost one child in infancy. They are members of the Swedish Lutheran church, in which Dr. Vestling is a deacon. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Occidental Mutual Benefit Association. Politically he is a republican. In the line of his profession he is connected with Union county, the Southwestern Iowa, the Iowa State and the American Medical Associations.