ANNIE ELENE ONSTAD SUBY (1871-1947)

was born in pioneer times in Mt. Valley township, rural Forest City, Iowa. She was fortunate as her grandparents, Signe and Halvor Gunnerson and Egil Arak had also immigrated from Norway. Her parents Sophie and Knut Onstad came to America in 1868 only two years after they were married. Knut was employed by Sophie’s parents or the government to mark trees for harvest. It was a custom to take the name of the more successful farm so Knut took the Onstad name in America.

This young family settled in Mt. Valley township on the farm where Ruthford Monson now lives. They were always members of Winnebago Church even before they had the present church site and cemetery. There was one child Bennie Onstad which was buried in the Charlson farm cemetery and, according to Julia Field, also a second child.

Annie was the first daughter in a family of eight children. Three children died young and when one of the small children died, Hans Holtan, a fellow church member gave them newly sawed lumber to make the casket.

Sophie’s family blackened the wood with soot and lard and Sophie lined the box with fabric with straw for padding. The grieving family brought the body for burial on Sunday morning. The pastor kept the funeral group waiting at the church while he went home for dinner. Following the burial services, they went home the six miles with their horse and wagon.

Annie and her sister walked the six miles to get confirmation instruction from Pastor Dahl. He was a firm teacher and these were bright pupils. Annie Elene was confirmed July 18, 1886 in a class of 34. There were 5 “Annies” in the class. Her confirmation certificate is a beautiful piece of art and is displayed at the Holtan Museum courtesy of Millard Brue.

Music was this family’s inheritance from Norway. Music was important in their home and in their Lutheran Church. Some note could be made of the outstanding high tenor voices, especially Rev. Irvin Suby, but also the deep contralto voice of Virginia Field Thomas.

 On December 27, 1889, Annie married neighbor boy Fredrick Suby in the newly rebuilt Winnebago Lutheran Church. They were the first wedding in the newly built church. Between the time of Annie’s confirmation and her wedding day, the first church was struck by lightning and destroyed while Pastor Dahl was visiting in Norway. The rebuilt church is the present structure that stands just across the Mt. Valley township line  in Center township.

Annie was the busy mother of Mabel Petersburg, Luella Heimdal, Sadie Holtan, Catherine Dahal, Rev. Irvin Suby and Emmet Suby. They all grew up on the Suby farm where the Mt. Valley Store and Post Office were an important meeting place.

There was a cream skimming station and a blacksmith shop in this area at one time also so it was the community center. Sadie recalls that one winter a group of men went to Mason City to influence the route of a proposed railroad line through Fertile, Mt. Valley and points west. The Mt. Valley site would have been called Fredricksburg, but Lake Mills got the route instead and Hanlontown and Joice began as towns.

There were many social and family events. The Leif Suby family were Beaver Creek church and choir members. The parental Leif Suby farm is the present Howard Kingland farm. There were younger Onstads and Subys to keep the social life and church activities interesting. The Subys and Onstads were not from the same places in Norway, but being neighbors and school-mates made many opportunities for romance and marriage. It was convenient and accepted when they were both Norwegians.

There were many friends of the Subys who took their theology very seriously with long discussions and much political talk in Fred and Annie’s store. Stories are told that Gabriel Kloster or Gustnor Kloster would sit around the pot-bellied stove until late at night and walk the 4 1/2 miles home at midnight.

Out of these deep discussions came the decision to form their own church on Fred Suby’s land. This would be the Mt. Valley Norwegian Synod Church as a protest to the forming of the United Lutheran Church union in the 1890s. This would be a continuation of the Norwegian Synod. Basic to all of this was the discussion over “predestination”. Fred Suby’s parents were involved in this church but not Annie’s family, the Onstads, so we wonder where Annie fit into all of this. We know her role involved hosting many persons for meals and lunches as we know there was no serving in the churches in those days.

The parsonage for their pastor was shared with the Norwegian Lutheran Church in north Forest City. A favorite pastor of Sadie was Pastor Larson. As a young woman she was the hired girl in this home and worked for this young mother with a new baby. Sadie learned more homemaking skills in this home in town for which she was always grateful.

The Subys had the country store for 22 years. They traded for eggs, kerosene, produce and other necessities. They had built the large living room and bedroom on the west side of the house (now owned by Steve Knudtson) to be the store part of their house. Fred also hauled his own groceries, farmed, and had chores, so often the store responsibilities fell to Annie along with caring for the children. The local school teacher often boarded at the Suby home also, so there was always extra work for her.

Annie was a striking woman with beautifully coiffured French roll hair. It was an Onstad family trait to gray early, in contrast to her husband’s mother’s family where they kept their hair color. She was industrious and expected those around her to be industrious also. In her later years she would visit the Heimdals or the Holtans and say, “You should be good help to your mother, like the Petersburgs”. While at Petersburgs she might say “Be like the Heimdals.”  Industriousness was next to godliness to this generation and we are the benefactors of this industrious and godly woman.

Annie Suby was anxious that her daughters have the best of homemaking skills and was very skilled herself in the sewing and crocheting crafts. Each girl in turn had a wedding dress and other garments sewed by their mother and grandmothers and with assistance from the sisters. There were also the necessary preparations for the wedding dinner and reception all prepared in this busy home for many guests.

Grandma Martha had been the midwife for the babies in this family and Annie in her time was always on hand to care for the mother and for her own newborn grandchildren. There were times the babies came too often for her schedule and she is reported to have said, “I guess we’ll move away to Albert Lea”.

There was a time when each of Annie’s children was expecting a baby and each of the six was a boy baby. Grandpa Fred said he didn’t like that as it was a premonition of a war to come. Another time he was chiding son Irvin that his family was growing in numbers saying, “When God said ‘go and populate the earth,’ he didn’t say you should do it all.”

Valois Field writes so beautifully about Christmas with the Nels Fields and the Fred Subys. These families were cousins and the best of friends. They had hard-working fun-loving parents so Christmas was a combination of anticipation, marvelous food, and the best of music and programs. She says the best times were when the dads played hide and seek with all the kids. There was always a lot of Christmas-week company so the children were assured of time with their cousins and ice skating and bobsled rides in the snow and cold.

On one of the festival Christmas Eve times at the parental Suby farm, when each of the families came home for Christmas, all of the good dishes were stacked on the table after the dinner and the extended table collapsed. These were the finest of gift and family serving pieces which were lost to the family forever.

There was always the tradition of reading the Christmas Gospel for the family after the festive Christmas Eve dinner. Another firm tradition was the singing of the single verse hymn

“To us is born a blessed child, To us a Son is given,

Born of a virgin undefiled, He is our hope of heaven.

Had not this child to us been born, We all had been in sin forlorn,

He is our souls’ salvation.

All thanks, Lord Jesus Christ to thee, That thou were pleased a man  to be,

Save us from condemnation.”

They lived in the house in the northwest corner of the park in Joice when Fred died on December 19, 1934. He died a slow death from stomach cancer which was very painful. The funeral service was at the Lake Mills Synod Church and burial was at the Oakwood Cemetery in Forest City. His hair was dark and not gray when he died at 66 years. We honor the memory of this man of deep convictions and actions.

Annie Suby continued to live in the friendly community of widows in Joice and the Joice Church. Her children were both near and far away from her but there was much together­ness with families. She boarded the school superintendent E.O. Berkland until he finally married and then she had teachers in her upstairs apartment. She was one of the Joice ladies who learned to make woven wheel rugs from rags, so she also taught this craft to her daughters. She kept her vital mind and energy until she passed away at the age of 76 at the home of Luella Heimdal, following a heart attack. She also had early breast cancer.

Annie’s life touched all of her descendants with her forthrightness and industry. She taught us how to live.