left- Louise and Walfred Kindlund
WHO WERE THE KINDLUNDS?
The November newsletter reported that, to our surprise, in her will the late Louise W. Kindlund had designated the Society as the recipient of all her personal property. Announcement alone of the gift and two auctions brought the Society considerable, beneficial press attention. The public, and we as recipients and historians, longed to know more about the Kindlunds. Through recollections of Kindlund's attorney for 21 years, Peter Waltz, and clues from the items she left behind, the Society pieced together some of their story.
She was born Louise W. Stange, in 1908 in Chicago. Advertisements and other paper artifacts still plentiful in Kindlund's Mt. Horeb home came from the neighborhood bar and restaurant which her parents George and Louise had operated. Kindlund worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Co., as evidenced by achievement pins and pendants in her jewelry box. During World War II she was in the Women's Army Corps, from which she left behind her uniform and discharge papers. She married Walfred Kindlund in 1950 in Palatine, Ill. It was, Waltz said, "a late marriage for each, as Louise was 42 and Walfred 50 at the time." Her brother, George Stange, and sister, Lillian Stange, both predeceased her, and none of the three had children. Society volunteers found much of her sister Lillian's estate still packed in original shipping boxes and barrels. Kindlund had told Waltz she had had no contact with any relatives for at least 50 years.
Walfred worked for the United States Post Office for several years; his postal worker's hat and a large stamp collection were packed away in their home. In 1966 the Kindlunds moved to Roxbury, then to Mt. Horeb in 1979. Walfred died in 1983. The Society's costume curator, Marietta Gribb, said that clothing, photos, trophies and a fine gun collection encountered while processing the household testified that Walfred "was an avid sportsman and outdoorsman." He also had Western-style clothing and "girlie" magazines and calendars.
Love notes and cards they presented to each other frequently -- on each minor holiday and in between -- suggest that Walfred and Louise loved each other deeply. Society volunteers briefly scanned the notes for historical value, retained several for future research and discarded the rest out of respect for their privacy.
The Society retained items for the collections which either identified the Kindlunds, were relevant to local history, or represented a broader social history. Among paper items, the Society saved photos of Louise,Walfred, George and Lillian and documents such as military papers. Artifacts included an unusual bisque doll, Kindlund's only childhood memento found in the home, which the Society kept due to its apparent personal keepsake importance. Early, 1850s canning jars and an apple peeler were selected as items typically used locally of which the Society had no examples. A vintage-1966 charcoal grill was retained for its implications about Midwest culture in the 1960s and because photographs prove that the Kindlunds genuinely used it both at Roxbury and Mt. Horeb.
Thirty volunteers cleaned and sorted the Kindlund estate and assisted during the auctions. They deserve many thanks for handling thousands of items in an efficient and orderly way. Louise's bequest, after expenses, added to our collections and boosted the Society's Facade Fund by $40,000, leaving $20,000 to raise of our $80,000 goal. Selected items from the Kindlund estate will remain on display at the Museum until May 2001.
Louise's thoughtful inclusion in her will, made with guidance from Attorney Waltz, has now enabled the Society to avoid a heavy debt and still undertake restoration of the Mt. Horeb Area Museum. It is the actions of generous, civic-minded individuals like Kindlund that will strengthen the Society so it may, in perpetuity, run a top-notch museum, present entertaining programs, and preserve its outstanding collection for public use. The Board encourages others who are considering estate planning to discuss such bequests to the Society with their own attorneys.