Lonegren, F.W.,
newspaperman — Portland — born in Wederslövs parish, Kronobergs län, August 13,
1860. Son of the assistant vicar — later on the vicar — of Lannaskeda, S. E.
Lönegren and his wife Caroline Wettergrund. Lonegren graduated from Jönköping’s
Gymnasium in 1879 and studied at the universities of Uppsala and Lund until
1884, after which he worked as a teacher in Jönköping until 1889, when he went
to America. Worked as a teacher for several years in Minneapolis, and then
became the editor of Duluth-Posten in Duluth, Minnesota from June 1891 to
February 1896. From the fall of 1897 to February 1901 he was the manager and
editor of the Svensk-Amerikanska Postens branch office in Duluth, and was an
active participant in the political life there. He was a delegate to several
political conventions and gave more than 100 political speeches. From February
1901 to September 1902 he was part of the Svensk-Amerikanska Postens editorial
staff in Minneapolis, after which he spent a couple of years dealing in real
estate in Little Falls, Minnesota. In the fall of 1904 he became the manager and
editor of Nordvesterns Handelstidning in Duluth,
and in February 1906 he moved
to Seattle, Washington, where he became the business manager at the newspaper
Pacific Tribune. After leaving this position in 1907 he spent some time dealing
in real estate, and in 1908 assisted the author of this book [Ernst Skarstedt]
during the publication of a similar book about the state of Washington. In
October 1908 he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he organized a newspaper
corporation and became the editor and manager of its newspaper, Oregon-Posten.
Lonegren is a member of Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen, Modern Samaritans,
Swedish Society Linnea, as well as an honorary member of the glee club Orpheus
in Duluth. On September 29, 1892, he married Catherine L. Wedmark from Superior,
Wisconsin. They have a daughter, Irma.