2017 Day trip: Elgin, Illinois / Pioneer Family Memorial

Pioneer Family Memorial – by Trygve A. Rovelstad

Location: Eastern end of the Kimball Street bridge, Elgin.

Dedicated: November 11, 2001.

The four-figure heroic size bronze sculpture epicts a pioneer family

Pioneer Family Memorial has a long history. It took 70 years from concept to completion.

The statue was designed by local sculptor Trygve Rovelstad in the 1930s to honor the 100th anniversary of Elgin being settled. It was not until the late 1990s when a combination of state, county and city funds, plus private donations, raised enough money to actually build the statue. Unfortunately, Trygve Rovelstad dies in 1990, and did not see the finished product. The sculpture was dedicated in 2001.

Pioneer Memorial sculpture – by Trygve A. Rovelstad

The statue depicts a pioneer family, led by a scout, followed by a husband and wife with their infant child and young son. They are symbolically moving across the Illinois prairie to settle the new frontier, which was once here in Elgin.

The statue was designed by local sculptor Trygve Rovelstad in the 1930s to honor the 100th anniversary of Elgin being settled. Rovelstad created the original plaster sculpture.

It took 70 years from concept to completion.

Rovelstad died in 1990, at age 86, before the completion of the project.

The main problem holding the completion was funding for the project.

Commemorative coins were issued for funding for the sculpture..
Rovelstad, who was also a medalist sculptor who designed several military medals for the U.S. War Department, as well as the Elgin centennial commemorative half-dollar coin, wanted to issue coins to raise funding for the project. He designed the commemorative half dollar coins. These were legal currency with an image of the statue on one side. The coins were sold for one dollar with the profits going towards constructing the statue. However, times were tough and not many people were willing to pay a dollar for a fifty cent piece. So the project languished.

It was not until the late 1990s when a combination of state, county and city funds, plus private donations, raised enough money to actually build the statue.

Unfortunately, Trygve Rovelstad did not live long enough to see the finished product.

Trygve A. Rovelstad was born on September 27, 1903, in Elgin, Illinois, to Norwegian immigrant parents,

Rovelstad also designed a concrete sculpture of the American flag, which was on Elgin’s Walton Island from the 1930s to 1960s. Through time, this sculpture deteriorated and was removed. However, it served as the inspiration for the current monumental steel sculpture of the American flag by David Powers.