Identical twins die within five minutes of each other.
by Tesha M. Christensen
STAR Assistant Editor
Identical twins Edward and Edgar Wilson experienced everything together, even death. The 43-year-old Cambridge twins died within five minutes of each other on Friday, March 26, 1942.
Their death shocked the community, and is yet remembered today by many.
Over 1,200 people attended the funeral of the well-known brothers, and more were turned away for lack of room.
Edward was the town postmaster and Edgar the town milkman. The 6’5” tall twins saw each other every day. The post office was a regular stop on Edgar’s route.
“They were born together, lived together, walked together, worked together, died together, walked through the pearly gates together and are now before the throne of God in heaven, serving together,” Mr. Moon, an intimate friend of the two families, remarked during the funeral service.
“The fact that they both died at the same time was quite a shock,” recalled Edgar’s oldest son Donald 64 years later. He was 17 when his father died.
His uncle Edward had a known heart condition and had been seeing a doctor in the Twin Cities. As far as anyone knew, the twin with the active, outdoor job was healthy. “My father was not ill at all. That was part of the shock, too,” added Donald.
They died on the front porch
March 26, 1942 was the day slated for the boy scout photo shoot at Stadin’s Studio. Edward had organized the troop in 1927 and had served as its only troopmaster since then. His twin brother, Edgar, had served on the Cambridge Boy Scout Troop Committee for most of its existence.
After the photo of the 37 boy scouts, committee members and its troopmaster was snapped at 7:30 p.m., the two brothers returned home. They were driven by Edgar’s 15-year-old son, Dwight. His first stop was his uncle’s home along Eighth and Ashland (just behind where the Dairy Queen sits today). Edgar lived just a few blocks away at the corner of Elm Street and Fifth (behind where the Holiday Station Store is today).
Edward said to his twin, “Let’s sit in the car and talk a bit.” While he doesn’t know what the last conversation between the two men was about, Donald surmises “there was a sense of uncertainty about what was going to happen. They [may have been] talking about his illness and his family – maybe even plans about scouting.”
Then the brothers decided to go into the house. Dwight remained in the car. Edward complained of not feeling well so he sat on the porch. When Edward sat down, his twin Edgar put his arm around Edward. “My dad said, ‘I was afraid of this,’ and then the shock took him.” The identical twins died within five minutes of each other at approximately 8 p.m.
Help was immediately sought. Boy Scouts arrived, and although CPR hadn’t yet been developed, they used the rescue breathing technique they’d learned in scout training.
The only doctor available was from Isanti. He got to Cambridge within five minutes, despite the bad roads. “They had as much help as could have been,” Donald noted. “There was nothing they could do.”
One image remained with Donald for years, that of his father and uncle laid out at his aunt Olga’s home.
“It was really a sight to see. Those great big men lying out together on the kitchen floor.”
Edward left behind his wife of 14 years, Olga (nee Flink), as well as son Robert, age 12, and daughter Shirley, age 10.
Edgar left behind his wife of 19 years, Myrtle (nee Paulson), son Donald, age 17, and son Dwight, age 15.
Neither woman ever remarried.
Donald’s attitude towards life changed drastically after the death of his father and uncle. “I took on a fatalistic attitude about life. What will be will be,” he said.
Switcheroos
The two men were raised in Cambridge, two of eight born to ??. Another set of twins, Ruth and Rueben, only lived four months. They are buried in the Stanchfield cemetery. They had three living sisters, Amelia (who died in the flu epidemic of 1918), Anna and Mildred (who became the first woman bailiff in Isanti County), and one brother, Reynold (an excellent painter who died at age 21 from tuberculosis).
Edgar and Edward graduated from Cambridge High School in 1918. Following their graduation, they enlisted in the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Minnesota. While in high school they were star players on the high school baseball team, seeing two Little Eight championship titles, one in 1916 and the other in 1918. According to the North Star newspaper in 1942, “Many a home run as ‘nipped in the bud’ due to their long legs and ability to climb a fence, pick up the ball, and return it to the catcher.”
In school, the teacher assigned both chairs, one in the front of the room and one in the back in order to keep track of which was which. Some days the two would switch on her, recalled Donald. When the teacher found out, she made them both stay after school. They were instructed to write, “I will not switch seats on the teacher.”
They’d also doubledate and switch girlfriends. “But my mother claimed she could tell them apart,” said Donald.
He’d be walking and see a familiar figure up ahead. He’d yell, ‘Hey, dad, wait for me” only to get closer and discover it was his uncle.
“They were that much alike,” said Donald.
As milkman, Edgar was tied to his job, delivering milk seven days a week. Occasionally the postmaster would say to the milkman, “You take the weekend off and go visit relatives.” Edward would put on his brother’s white shirt and bib overalls and complete the milk route. After one such stunt, Edgar ran into a woman who asked what he’d been up to. “I had a couple days off,” he told her. She responded, “When did you do that? I just talked to you yesterday!”
“No,” Edgar told her. “You talked to Edward.”
The milkman
At one point, each local farmer was responsible for selling his own milk, but several put their heads together and decided to ask Edgar to deliver their milk for them. Among them were E. Strait, who raise cows on land now occupied by the high school; oldtimer G.C. Wilcox, whose farm sat where the Super America does now; and Gunnard Larson, a longtime school board member whose pasture sat north of the high school football field.
Edgar started delivering milk when wagons were drawn by a team of horses, remembered Donald. He purchased the team from the Straits. “He used that team of horses for 10 years,” said Donald, only disposing of them when the number of cars in town got to be so much that the horses started having accidents.
The horses knew his milk route so well that Edgar would take two carriers full of milk (each held eight quarts), one in each hand, and traipse through the alleyways while the horses proceeded on the street. They’d be waiting for him at the end of the block. Occasionally, Edgar would be held up visiting with a customer. When he got to the end of the block, his horses would have moved on without him. Bells on the horses’ harness announced Edgar was in the neighborhood.
At the time, milk cost Edgar 3.5¢ a quart. He bottled the milk and delivered it at a cost of 7¢ for 3%, and 1¢ more for 4% and 2¢ more for 5%. Milk wasn’t pasteurized so people bought milk daily, explained Donald. “People said as long as we can get Wilsons’ milk we don’t want pasteurized milk.”
Edgar typically began his day at 6 a.m. and was finished delivering milk by noon.Business customers included The Nugget, Eklund’s Cafe (where Moline Realty is now) and Quick Lunch (now People’s Cafe).
Donald worked alongside his father and observed his daily interactions with his customers. “He was sympathetic to the poor people of the Depression,” Donald said. “He always saw that people got milk for their kids whether he got paid for it or not.”
Donald picked up where his father left off, delivering the milk the day after his death, with the assistance of some Boy Scouts. Because of his good grades, the school district allowed Donald to deliver milk in the morning and attend his classes in the afternoon. A senior, Donald graduated in May. The family sold the Cambridge Milk Company in June to a fellow from Forest Lake.
“Don and his daddy knew everyone in town,” pointed out Donald’s wife, Rebekah.
Donald remembers his father as a honest man. Although the demands of the milk route prevented Edgar from holding many positions in the community, he did serve as treasurer of the First Baptist Church and would spend Sunday nights counting the collection.
At the time of his death, he was a member of the Board of Trustees and a member of the pulpit committee at First Baptist. He was also a Sunday School teacher for many years.
Both Edgar and Edward were teetotalers, staying away from alcohol, gambling and smoking. “They were clean living men,” said Donald. “Devoted to family, both of them.”
The postmaster
Edward was even more active at the First Baptist Church. At the time of his death he was a Sunday School teacher, treasurer of the Sunday School, member of the Music Committee and Chairman of the Board of Deacons. He had directed the choir for several years. “He ended up being the choir leader. He couldn’t sing himself, but he could direct it,” said Donald.
Edward taught his nephew how to direct song reading, enabling him to become the song leader at church years later.
Edward also served on the church building committee when the original brick structure at the corner of Main Street and Third Avenue was constructed. The $30,000 tab was paid by bonds the church sold at 1% interest. By 1942/43, the church had paid off all the bonds and burned the mortgage. And that happened, remember, during the Depression, pointed out Donald.
To commemorate the contribution of the Wilson Twins to the church, a stain glass window was commissioned. It still glows in the back of the church at the peak.
Edward was associated with the Aldrich Evangelistic Party as Tabernacle Builder for 14 months. For several years he was the Vice President of the Swedish Baptist Young People’s Union of Minnesota and for eight years was camp director at the Lake Geneva Young Peoples Summer Assembly. Prior to his death, he served as chairman of the Mission Committee of the State Young Peoples Association.
Both Edward and Edgar were members of the Baptist Men of Minnesota, and were charter members of the American Legion Howard McCarty Post 290.
When approached by several high school students, including Kenny Jacobson and Clement Freden, about starting a Boy Scout Troop, Edward agreed. He was 28.
“He was very unselfish with his time,” remarked Donald about his uncle. Donald was a member of his uncle’s Boy Scout Troop, as was his brother and cousin Robert. (See picture of troop on page ??.) Among his scouts were boys who became well known in the community, including George Johnson, Jerry Odemark, Stanley Starr, John Lindholm, Wayne Norberg, Jim Stake and Paul Whitney.
As scouts the boys learned important skills such as how to braid, tie knots, and cook outdoors. They hiked a lot, driving up to Springvale and then following the Rum River north.
Summer camp was a highlight for the troop. Camp cost $5 (a fee hard to come by in those Depression Days but also difficult to feed growing boys on for a week). It was held on Spectacle Lake at Buckhorn resort where the boys learned to swim. One year some cowboys taught them how to crack a leather bull whip. “We got pretty good at it,” recalled Donald. A couple of guys brought their guitars and evenings were spent singing around the campfire. “So you want to be a Boy Scout? Come hike with me by the light, by the light of the moon. …”
QUOTES FROM OTHER BOY SCOUTS?
Because of his outstanding and distinguished service to the youth of the community and the district, he was awarded the Silver Beaver in 1935. An article in the Aug. 5, 1937 NorthStar told of Edward’s selection as Scoutmaster of the 1937 Covered Wagon Expedition. “Boy Scout Troop 235 of Cambridge, through his leadership, has been recognized as one of the most successful and effective troops in the entire council during these years,” read the article.
“I never reached Eagle because my dad died when I was a Life Scout,” noted Donald.
Both Wilson men were quiet, steady guys. Edward was the kidder between the two. One cousin said she couldn’t stand being around Edward because he teased her unmercifully.
1,200 attend funeral
The astonishing news of the twins’ deaths was such big news it hit the Minneapolis paper. The headline read, “Identical Twins, 43, Die 5 Minutes Apart”. DOUBLE CHECK WHAT IS NORTHSTAR, WHAT IS STAR TRIBUNE
According to the report printed in the NorthStar on Thursday, April 2, 1942, an estimated 1,200 persons paid tribute to the widely known men at double funeral services conducted at the Cambridge Baptist Church. Loud speakers were installed in the basement of the church for the overflow crowd, but yet, hundreds were turned away for lack of even standing room. The impressive services were conducted at 2:30 p.m. with messages given by the Reverend Martin Samuelson, field secretary for the Swedish Baptist Con?? as well as local minister Eric N. Lindholm.
The Boy Scouts and Legionaries who attended formed an impressive aisle for the mourners to pass through as they entered the church.
Pallbearers included Harold Westin, B.B. Barker, Ralph Dalgren, Evall Larson, Harold Stake, I.R. Hoagland, Melvin Erickson, E.R. Nordell, Delor Bodien, J.D. Sarner, Andrew Engberg, Clifford Starr, R.J. Moody, Clinton Strait, Gunnard Larson and J.R. Monson.
The bodies of the two brothers were laid to rest next to one another in the Union Cemetery. A large headstone was made and donated by their friends at Braham Graniteworks. It reads “One lamp lighteth another, nor groweth less, so nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”
* Article appeared in the 2006 Isanti County Traveler published by the STAR newspaper.
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