Deep roots

89-year-old traces family history back to the 1600s

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, June 25, 2007

Wilbur Brewer likes to dwell on the past.

That is, genealogy is a favorite pastime. From his Mill Street Residence apartment, Brewer, 89, enjoys tracing his family’s history. He was born and raised in Ohio, but his roots run farther from home.

“The Brewers came to America very early,” he said. “I didn’t realize how early until I started looking into it. They didn’t keep very good records. I think they originally came from Scotland or Ireland. They probably immigrated here in the 1620s.”

His mother’s people, the Kempers, were from Germany.

“The Kempers kept better records than the Brewers. My mother’s father was a Methodist minister and traveled quite a bit.”

Brewer’s interest in his family’s history fits well with his love of education, a family tradition of sorts.

“My dad taught with nothing more than an eighth grade education,” he said.

Brewer’s own teaching career began when he was 19; after two years of what was then called “normal college,” he taught in a one-room school in Ohio. He later taught at an elementary school for 2.5 years.

He briefly dropped out of teaching and worked at an aircraft manufacturer while finishing his college degree. That task complete, Brewer taught elementary phy-ed and coached touch football in Washington state.

It was in Washington where he met his future wife, Borghild Moen, an Underwood native. They married in 1950. She taught remedial reading and he taught sixth grade. He was later an assistant principal at a junior high.

While in Washington, he began developing a more complete Brewer family tree.

The couple returned to Minnesota when Brewer began teaching at St. Cloud State University in 1965, retiring in 1973. Computers were just coming in when he came to SCSU.

“I was surprised at the number of students who helped me (learn the computer),” he said.

Now, as he keeps learning more and more about his family, he is able to input it into his computer.

Genealogy, Brewer said, “is important for several reasons, but mostly the history aspect. You go back into ages when you didn’t live and you find out why people did what they did. It keeps me busy.”

The Brewers moved to Fergus Falls in 1997. Borghild died in 2000 at the age of 94

“I was a reader and so was Borgie. We had like interests. We both liked to do history and research and we enjoyed each other.”