Emil Joseph Wilhelm Ekdahl

1910 Federal Census reports Emil (2), living on the family farm in Clark, Aitkin County, MN on April 16th.

1920 Federal Census report Emil J. (11) living on the family farm in Clark, Aitkin County, MN. in January..

1930 Federal Census reports Emil (22) living in American Township, Rio Linda District, Sacramento County and working as a laborer in a car shop.

1937 June 10, Marguerite birth announcement, Emil and Virginia lived at Route 6, Box 1474, Carmichael, CA Sacramento Bee, Page 4.

1938 Voter Registration reports Emil at Box 1631-A, Sacramento County, working as a carpenter, registered as a Democrat.

1943 - E.J. Ekdahl lives at Route 5, Box 1837, Carmichael, corner of Landis and California Avenue. Classified ad selling a Guernsey bull calf for 45 dollars. Sacramento Bee, page 4, 31 July.

1949 WWII Draft card describes Emil as (32), living in Auburn, Placer County, working at the Sacramento Air Corp Depot as a Civil Servant, 5'-11", 167 pounds, blonde hair, with a ruddy complexion. One joint missing on his right hand next to his small finger. Dated Oct 16, 1940. Has original signature.

SS 565107977

1966 address: 2216 Oxford Drive, Redding, CA with Virginia City Directory

1966 Divorced Virginia

1968 Divorced Vera in July

1971 lived at 5630 Fruitridge Road, Sacramento. City Directory

1973 lived at 5630 Fruitridge Road, Sacramento, City Directory

I am Terry and this is what I know about my grandfather. One thing I am sure of is that Emil was honest, up front and that he didn't sugarcoat anything. So writing about him neither will I. I can still picture him sitting at his table with a cup of coffe and a big cigar in his mouth.

A family member told me that a young Emil loved to ice skate in Minnesota and he was a very good ice skater. Emil lived through The Great Depression in 1929 supporting his family on whatever he could find and they had a farm in Carmichael, California where my mother was raised. I have heard that he dug ditches and earned a dollar a day doing that backbreaking work to provide for his family. When the children had grown and left to go their separate ways in the 1960’s he had a farm in Redding California for a while and moved to a farm closer to Sacramento. He then moved into a home on a busy street in the south side of Sacramento. He worked in and around the Sacramento area during his life. As with anyone in this world some people have said things for and against him. I don't care because it really doesn't matter anymore.

Once as a young man in my early teens, I was in Bryte on a bicycle and noticed a man working near a gas station. I thought he looked familiar to me so I rode my bike close to him to get a better look. To my surprise it was Grandpa working there on that hot summer day. I got off my bike and started talking to him. He told me that he was in the area working on the pipes and I sat and watched as he used his tools and replaced some pipe on the side of the building. This was during the mid 1970’s when this happened that I stumbled upon him doing his job. Over the years we talked once in a while but he was not someone that I got to know that well. My mother Laura told me that he had worked on the "I street" bridge in Sacramento helping to build it, which is like saying, he helped in the building of Sacramento in a way. When I came home from the army in 1984 my brother Darrell and I went to visit him at his home on Fruitridge Avenue in Sacramento. He was very old then and we sat and had a cup of coffee as I told him about my last 3 years in Germany. A year later I heard about his death and I went to the funeral to pay my last respects. I visit his grave once in a while, as recently as April 2008, and I say a few words to let him know that someone out there is still thinking of him.

He had another women, that at least that I know about, other than my grandmother Virginia Ekdahl, who was in his life that I knew very little about and they had 2 children. Seeing her linked on this site is about all the information that I have on that relationship. I remember the weird feeling having a Uncle Joe and Aunt Melinda that were younger than me but after a while I got used to it. But it was what Emil wanted and that is all that matters.

I saw a photo of Emil with a hat on and he looked real sharp and had a grin on his face. The photo looked like it was taken during the 1940's. When I visit him, I like to think about him when he first met Virginia and when they fell in love way back in them days. Back then there was a wedding for the bride and groom with guests and a party after. He was very happy on that day, I can be sure that I am right about that.

I love you grandpa – no matter what you have done.