Gustav C. Bergman (1872–1962) was the first elected mayor of
Beverly,
Alberta after Beverly was incorporated as a town in 1914.
Biography
Carl Gustaf Bergman was born to Swedish American parents in
Paxton, Illinois. His mother was killed in an accident with a train
when Bergman was only seven years old. Because his father was unable to care for him, he was forced to work. He later attended
Drake University.
He moved to
Canada in the early 1900s, settling first near
Erskine, Alberta, before moving to the Beverly area in 1912. He bought 36 lots in Beverly's
Beacon Heights
The Beacon Heights () are a small cluster of peaks between Beacon Valley and Arena Valley in Quartermain Mountains, Victoria Land, rising to in West Beacon, and also including East Beacon and South Beacon. They were named by Hartley Ferrar, ...
subdivision.
When Beverly incorporated as a town in 1914, he ran for mayor, was elected and served a single term. During his term, Beverly's police force and fire brigade were established. In 1917, he moved back to Erskine and took up farming.
Bergman returned to Edmonton briefly in 1962 to attend the ceremonies marking Beverly's
amalgamation
Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal
** Pan am ...
with the City of Edmonton. He died later the same year and was buried in Edmonton.
The Edmonton neighborhood of
Bergman
Bergman is a surname of German, Swedish, Dutch and Yiddish origin meaning 'mountain man', or sometimes (only in German) 'miner'.https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=bergmann
People
*Alan Bergman (born 1925), American songwriter
*Alan Berg ...
, located just to the north of the old Beverly townsite, was named in his honour in 1987.
References
Further reading
*Herzog, Lawrence, "Built on Coal, A History of Beverly, Edmonton's Working Class Town", Beverly Community Development Society, 2000, Edmonton, Alberta.
1872 births
1962 deaths
American emigrants to Canada
Drake University alumni
Mayors of places in Alberta
American people of Swedish descent
Canadian people of Swedish descent
People from Paxton, Illinois
{{Alberta politics