Author-poet Carl Sandburg was born in the three-room cottage at 313 East Third Street in Galesburg on January 6, 1878. The modest house reflects the typicalliving conditions of a late nineteenth century working-class family. Many of thefurnishings once belonged to the Sandburg family are still in tact. Behind thehouse stands a small wooded park. Underneath Remembrance Rock, lie the ashesof Carl Sandburg, who died in 1967.Carl August Sandburg was born the son of Swedish immigrants August andClara Anderson Sandburg. The elder Sandburg, a blacksmith's helper for thenearby Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, purchased the cottage in 1873.Carl, called "Charlie" by the family, was born the second of seven children in1878. A year later the Sandburgs sold the small cottage in favor of a larger housein Galesburg. Carl Sandburg worked from the time he was a young boy. He quitschool following his graduation from eighth grade in 1891 and spent a decadeworking many jobs. He delivered milk, harvested ice, laid bricks, threshed wheatin Kansas, and shined shoes in Galesburg's Union Hotel before traveling as a hoboin 1897.His experiences working and traveling greatly influenced his writing andpolitical views. As a hobo he learned a number of folk songs, which he laterperformed at speaking engagements. He saw first-hand the large differencebetween rich and poor, a inflence that instilled in him a distrust of capitalism.When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 Sandburg volunteered forservice, and at the age of twenty was ordered to Puerto Rico, where he spent daysbattling only heat and mosquitoes. Upon his return to his hometown later that year,he entered Lombard College, supporting himself as a call fireman.Sandburg's college years shaped his literary talents and political views.While at Lombard, Sandburg joined the Poor Writers' Club, an informal literaryorganization whose members met to read and criticize poetry. Poor Writers'founder, Lom...
