Silvert Tobias Gunderson was born in Norway in 1839, and came to America in 1848 with his parents. They settled at once in Chicago, then a town of 20,000 inhabitants. He went to public school until he was fifteen years of age. He began to earn his own living by learning the carpenter trade. At the age of eighteen years he entered his own business; when the financial panic of 1857 slowed his business he moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but returned in 1858. In 1862 he purchased a lake vessel the Hercules and within five years became the owner of six vessels most of them engaged in the grain trade. As his financial resources increased he also interested himself in the lumber trade and in 1871 purchased large interests in sawmills. This business was in a thriving condition when in 1875 his plant was completely destroyed by fire. Being but lightly insured he was almost ruined financially. He went to work determined to retrieve his losses and to day, in addition to his lumber business he is the owner of extensive real estate interests, being the senior member of the firm of S. T. Gunderson & Sons, 2home builders. He was for a number of years connected with John A. Gouger & Company who shipped large quantities of doors and sash of their own manufacture throughout the U.S.A. He was married in 1869 to Emily C. Olson. They have two sons, both connected in their father's business,and one daughter. Mr. Gunderson is an active member of the Lutheran Church and contributes to its charities. He was one of the founders of the Masonic Orphans Home. He has all the degrees in masonry. In 1874 he was elected to a seat in the City Council and 1891 and 1907 he was appointed a member of the Board of Education. Mr. Gunderson's work in securing Chicago as the site for the World's Fair stands to his credit as does the fact that he was the originator of the plan and president of the company, which purchased the Viking ship, a reproduction of the little ship in which the Norwegian explorers are supposed to 3to have come to America in about the year 1000. The ship is now on exhibition at the Field Columbian Museum. For the past fourteen years, S. T. Gunderson and sons have been erecting some very nice houses selling them on time payments. In the last four years they have erected from fifty to seventy houses a year.