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Permanent LinkSenator Lars Johan Skromme View All Years
LARS JOHAN SKROMME was born in Norway in 1879 and died in a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, December 23, 1934. Burial was at Roland, Story County. He was with his parents when they emigrated to the United States in 1885, settling on a farm near Roland. He received his early education in a country public school, and later attended Highland Park College, Des Moines, Red Wing Seminary, Red Wing, Minnesota, and Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He was ordained a minister in the Lutheran church and served for a time as pastor at Eagle Grove, and at Pontiac, Illinois. At different times he was engaged in real estate business at Clarion, Iowa, and at Thief River Falls, Minnesota. On the entry of the United States into the World War he enlisted at Roland in the Iowa National Guard on April 6, 1917, and was assigned to the Second Ambulance Company, Medical Department. He became first class private, August 1, 1917; sergeant, August 17, 1917; and was honorably discharged June 4, 1918, to accept commission; appointed second lieutenant in infantry June 5, 1918; first lieutenant September 27, 1918. His principal stations were at Camp Pike, Arkansas; Camp McArthur, Texas; Camp Merritt, New Jersey; and Camp Funston, Kansas. He was honorably discharged December 11, 1918. After the war he was engaged in farm operations, and in the seed business at Roland where he organized the Skromme Seed Company. In 1924 he was elected senator and served in the Forty-first and Forty-second general assemblies. In 1928 he was a candidate in the primary election for the Republican nomination of governor in a field of four candidates when John Hammill received the nomination for a third term.