Early Photographers • Round Rock

Early Photographers • Round Rock

Written by Bob Brinkman Friday, 01 August 2008

Married couple Bror Gustaf and Sarah Noyd Gröndal had a flourishing photography business.

Bror Gustaf Gröndal was born in the university city of Upsala, Sweden, in 1855. His parents never left Sweden, but at age 14 the more daring Gröndal came alone to America. He landed in Savannah, Ga., and spent a decade working a variety of jobs, including as a store clerk in Sanford, Fla., as a salesman in New York City and five years as a sailor in the United States Revenue Service and the Deep Water and Coastwise Service. Gröndal’s seafaring adventures took him to dozens of countries and many exotic places.

When he settled on dry land in the early 1880s, Gröndal began working as a grocery store salesman in Chicago, but he also began studying photography. He apprenticed with many professionals there and in St. Paul, Minn. The young transplant then moved to the vibrant Swedish colony in Round Rock. Soon after he arrived, he met Sarah Noyd, an Illinois native whose parents were Swedish. In Round Rock, Noyd was a professional photographer, an uncommon profession for a woman in 19th-century Texas.

On Oct. 21, 1886, Gröndal and Noyd married at Palm Valley Lutheran Church, with the Rev. A.W. Stark officiating. The Round Rock News that same week reported that “the commodious church house was crowded to its utmost capacity with the many friends of the contracting parties to witness the impressive ceremony.” The couple had a flourishing photography studio together, and Gröndal also advertised as a steamship agent for passage to Sweden and northern Europe.

Soon after the couple married, Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., attended a Lutheran Church convention, met Gröndal, and was impressed by the quality of his work. Swensson invited Gröndal to establish a studio in Lindsborg. For several years, the Gröndals operated studios simultaneously in Round Rock and Lindsborg. For about five years, Gröndal also partnered with William B. Praytor. It seems that Noyd focused on raising a family soon after marrying and gave up her own photography practice.

Gröndal took traditional studio portraits and also city scenes and landscapes, building a valuable record of life in Round Rock and Lindsborg. He was president of the Kansas State Photographers Association. Gröndal and Noyd had seven children, six of whom were educated at Bethany College. Their son Bror L., born in Round Rock, became a noted forestry professor and an expert in microphotography at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Gröndal continued in photography until the year Noyd died, at which point he retired at the age of 90. He earned the title “Dean of Kansas Photographers” for his long career, spanning nearly 60 years in Kansas, in addition to years spent in Chicago, St. Paul and Round Rock. His Lindsborg studio still stands, and the McPherson County Old Mill Museum there recently featured an exhibition of his work. Bror and Noyd were married for 59 years; Noyd died in 1945 and Bror in 1948. They are buried beside their daughter Rose at Elmwood Cemetery in Lindsborg.

--Bob Brinkman is with the Texas Historical Commission. His new book “Round Rock” features more than 200 historical images of the city dating back to 1851. The book, along with postcards produced through the “Images of America” series, is available through Arcadia Publishing.