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 William Hellberg
was born in 1862 at Skane, Sweden, where he began his training as a watchmaker
at the young age of 5. After his schooling, William started a watchmaking
school and a watch factory in Helsingberg, where he made three complete watches
per day and employed 22 people. William married his wife, Ellen Patterson Hellberg, in
1884. The couple together
with their son, Erik Wilhelm Fredinand Hellberg, immigrated to America in 1886.
Before leaving Sweden, William sold out everything he had to make a new life in
America. William, his wife and young son left Copenhagen, Denmark, by steamship
and headed for their new life in the United States of America. Upon arriving in
the United States, they settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, where
their second son, Authur Edward, was born. They then moved to Groton, South Dakota,
where their daughter, Edith Ruby, and third son, Hjalmar Victor, Sr., were born.
The family moved on to Fargo, North Dakota, where they lost everything when
the entire town was destroyed by fire. After moving a few more times, the
family settled in Marshalltown, Iowa, and opened the first Hellberg's Jewelers
at 23 West Main Street, where it carried a full line of high grade diamonds,
watches, and jewelry.
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 H. V. Hellberg, Sr., began working in the store after school at
the age of 12. He completed his appenticeship as a watchmaker when he was 17 years old.
Starting out on his own, he founded the Des Moines Horological Institute where he trained
watchmakers in both Peoria, Illinois, and Des Moines, Iowa. During the next 21 years,
Hellberg's Jewelers occupied two additional locations, 34 West Main and later
12 West Main Street where the store was located at the time of William's death in 1919.
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 Hjalmar V. Hellberg Jr. was born in Marshalltown on Aug. 13, 1924.
He learned the business and watchmaking trade by working after school and weekends. He graduated high school in 1943 and
entered the military service where he flew twenty-four combat missions over Germany, from England, while serving in the Air force.
Upon his discharge from the service, he resumed his association with Hellberg's and was named manager on January 1, 1950. In 1958,
he moved the store to East Main Street where it stayed for 18 years, then purchased our current building on West Main Street in 1973.
During those years, he was active in the Iowa Jewelers & Watchmakers Association serving as excutive secretary for 8 years and
president from 1971 to 1973.
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