Charles Ludwig Bloomgren was a member of the Dirty Dozen along with Carl and Martin Sandburg. The boys were teenagers who lived in the same neighborhood in the southeast quarter of Galesburg.  They had always been told by their mothers to come into the house with clean feet when it was time to go to bed. However, the name Dirty Dozen came into being when the boys decided to have a group photograph taken in a local studio.

 

Bloomgren was one of seven of the Dirty Dozen who were arrested on a hot Sunday afternoon for swimming in the abandoned pond of an old brickyard on Day Street, near the city limits. Carl and Mart were also in the group. Apparently,  the nearest neighbor had notified the police that some naked boys were swimming in the muddy pond. The chief of police and a policeman came with the paddy wagon to arrest the boys. They were hustled into the conveyance, where they finished putting on their clothes, and were taken to the city jail. The boys were locked in two cells with the Saturday night drunks for several hours and then were released.

 

The boys appeared before the Justice of the Peace, B.F. Holcomb, the next morning, He gave them a stern warning and they were released. They felt they had been treated unfairly and their parents were understanding.

 

Charlie had been born November 4, 1879, to August and Eliza Erickson Bloomgren, who lived at 79 East Berrien. His father was a brakeman for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (the “Q” in local parlance). In 1883 the family moved to 650 East Berrien and later to 886 East Berrien.

 

In 1895, Charlie started his working life as a cash boy at the Palace of Trade, a general merchandise store on Main Street. Several years later he worked as an operator at the Q. Then, he was employed as a clerk for the telephone company. He also worked as a brakeman on the railroad, as a clerk in the Division Superintendent's office and as foreman at the Q ice house.

 

Sometime between 1908 and 1909, Bloomgren went to Burlington, Iowa, where he met and married Anna Schliefer on May 17, 1909. By 1913, the Bloomgren's were living in Galesburg, where Charlie managed a saloon named The White Elephant. The business was established in 1900 by the Pabst Brewing Company. It was operated by Solomon Frolich and Henry Gardt, distributors of alcoholic beverages in Galesburg and parts of western Illinois.

In 1914 the Illinois General Assembly passed a law giving

women the right to vote on questions of public policy. In the next election the women voted Galesburg a “no license” city. The voters for a dry Galesburg cast 5,179 votes to the 2,344 votes cast by those who wanted it to stay wet. That meant the saloons had to close. A number of drinking establishments continued in business as soft drink parlors. Charlie Bloomgren became manager of the White Elephant Soft Drink Parlor at 35 Boone's Avenue, and later on Simmons Street..

 

In 1921 Bloomgren moved to El Paso, Texas, for his health. He died March 8, 1922, in El Paso. His body, accompanied by his wife and sister, was returned to Galesburg for burial in Hope Cemetery near his parents.