Lennea Umsted Poetry
Lennea Sabrena Berg Umsted, 1890-1976
Lennea Berg Umsted was the daughter of Swedish immigrants, and married Raymond Ver Umsted, whose English and German ancestors arrived in America in the 1600s. Lennea and Ray lived in Dayton, Iowa before settling in Montana in 1916. Lennea was a wife, mother, teacher, and poet. This website provides information about her and includes a complete copy of her long out of print 1965 book of poems “Prairie Enchantment”.
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Lennea Umsted was born on January 29,1890 in Des Moines, Iowa, daughter of Herman and Amelia (Anderson) Berg. She moved with her parents and older brother, Adolphus, when she was four to Dayton, Iowa where she attended grade and high school. She graduated from Iowa State Teacher’s College, Cedar Falls (now Iowa State University, Northern) in 1908. She and her roommate, Anna Hong, took a tour of the West after graduation, including San Francisco, California, and Yellowstone Park with the Wiley Way Camping Company. Soon she began her career as a teacher, first in Sanborn, Iowa, then in Duluth and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1915 she married Raymond Ver Umsted of Dayton, Iowa (the Methodist Minister, the Reverend William Spence performed the ceremony. His son, Hartzell Spence, wrote a book about his father One Foot in Heaven in 1940. It was later made into a movie starring Fredric March and Martha Scott.) Lennea and Ray were both in the small school in Dayton, and had known each other since childhood. Ray was offered a position as manager of the St. Anthony and Dakota Lumber Yard in Galata, Montana and they decided to move to the frontier land along the Great Northern Railway which was being settled by homesteaders. In Galata, and later Lothair, she resumed her teaching career. She was also active in a singing group, as she was a fine soprano. Drought came to Montana in the years following, and Iittle by little the homesteaders fled to greener pastures. Business deteriorated, and then World War I came along for America. Ray was called up, in spite of being 4F due to a teenage accident when his leg was broken in 18 places, they sold their home and property, and were ready to leave Montana. But the draft board found someone in better physical condition to call up, so they told Ray he did not have to go. They decided to drive to California with another family and settled in Hawthorne. Ray became manager of a lumber yard in a neighboring town, Inglewood, and they stayed there for five years. While there, Lennea took classes at the University of California, Los Angeles. On May 30, 1926 their only child, Allie Marie, was born. |
They thought that California in 1926 was too crowded, so decided to move back to Montana. Allie
Marie celebrated her first birthday en route at West Yellowstone, Montana. They settled this time in
Chinook, a growing town in the Milk River Valley. Ray was hired as manager of the Monarch Lumber Co.,
and Lennea began teaching in the Chinook school system. In 1929 Ray resigned from the Monarch and
started his own business, the Home Lumber Company, which proved a success. This was the beginning of
the Great Depression, and although Lennea was an excellent and popular teacher, she was relieved of her
position, and a single woman hired in her place. It was a period of high unemployment and if one was
married, one's husband was to provide the income for the family. It was difficult to keep the lumber business
profitable, as the paint and lumber wholesalers required cash for their orders, and the local customers needed
credit, so this was a financial blow. Lennea then began teaching piano in her home. She did well, but often
had to accept farm produce instead of money.
Lennea was active in many activities besides teaching. She was a member of the Northern Star
Chapter of the Order of the Eastern State (OES), and served as Worthy Matron, and as organist for the group.
She was the Mother Advisor of the Chinook Order of the Rainbow Girls, an organization associated with the
Masonic Order. (She joined Eastern Star in Dayton in 1910 and received her fifty year pin in Chinook in 1960.)
She served as a Grand Officer of the State OES. She was also an active member of the Chinook Methodist
Church, singing in the choir, as solist, and as pianist and also as Choir Director. She was active in Republican
politics: Vice-Chair of the County Republican Central Committee, State Committeewoman, President of the Blaine
County Women's Republican Club. She attended President Dwight David Eisenhower's first Inaugural Ball in
Washington in 1953. She became the President of the Ikebana International Chapter #8 in Chinook, served as
Secretary of the Blaine County American Red Cross and was an active member of the Montana Institute of the
Arts and the Chinook Writers and History Groups.
A collection of her poetry, Prairie Enchantment, was published in 1965; in addition, many of her poems were
published in a variety of journals. She continued writing poetry until she passed away in March 1976.
Written by Allie Marie (Umsted) Uyehara
