The Story of My Life By Sadie Suby Holtan— as told to Stanford Holtan Jan 1977
I was born on April 22, 1899 at the home of my parents, Fred and Annie (Onstad) Suby. My grandmother, Mrs Lief Suby was the midwife. I was the fourth child, of six in the family. My oldest sister was Mable (Mrs. Edwin Petersburg) then Luella, (Mrs. Heimdal), Irvin, who became the pastor, and who died in 1970 at Janesville, WI. Later my brother Emmet was born in 1901 and then my sister Catherine was born in 1906. (Mrs. Milo Dahl).
We lived in Valley township, Winnebago County, Iowa, six miles east and three miles north of Forest City, Iowa. My folks ran a country store for 22 years. They also had the Post Office in the store for a few years until the mail route was started. When they had the Post Office, the mail was brought out from Forest City three times a week. Our store went by the name of Valley Store. Some maps showed Valley Store” and I remember even for a few years after we quit the store, people would call and ask if this was Mt. Valley.
I remember my dad going to Forest City to get the groceries he had ordered from a salesman from Albert Lea, MN, by the name of “Fritz.” He drove a team and buggy. One day he came driving a bright, new, red car; the first one we had ever seen. When he left, mama called her folks who lived three miles south of our place, and told them a car was going south. My uncle, who was a little older than my sister Mable, ran a half mile so he could see it, but it had already passed, and all he could see were the tracks. So, he bragged to his friends afterwards that he had seen the tracks of the first car that had ever gone that road.
When my dad came home with a wagon load of boxes and barrels of groceries, he always got a lot of help from us kids, because there always were two or three five-gallon pails of different kinds of candy. There were mixed hard, or Christmas candy, we now call it, gumdrops, heart candy with writing on it, and sometimes chocolate with white filling. When people bought quite a bit of groceries those days and paid for them, they always got a sack of candy free. People brought us eggs and “traded” them for groceries.
There was also a creamery about a quarter mile east of our store. For many years, farmers brought their milk to the “Skimming Station” where the cream was “separated” from the milk The “Buttermaker” as he was called, took the cream to Lake Mills where it was made into butter.
The farmers took the skim milk home for their family, but mostly for calves or pigs. Cream day was a busy day at the store. There was a hitching rail south of the store running east to the road, and sometimes there would be many teams hitched there. Later the farmers got their own se
parators and they would bring only the cream every other day and Saturday. Then for many years a large, red high wheeled wagon sat south of the house alongside the road. Farmers joined together into “cream routes” and they would take turns hauling their cream cans and place them in this wagon. Several “cream routes” would haul cream to tais wagon, then one farmer, in turn, would take the whole load to Lake Mills.
The school was mile south and at one time there was a blacksmith shop across the road south of the store, so it was quite a little community. One winter the men from the neighborhood went to Fertile to try to get the Railroad routed thru Fertile and then past their little community. Dad wanted to name it Fredricksburg. (His name was Fredrick) But neither Fertile or Fredricksburg got the Railroad, Hanlontown and Joice got it instead. To this day, some of the older people at Fertile are bitter that they didn’t get the Railroad.
The store was in the west part of the house, now used for a living room and a bedroom. Entrance was by the porch on the south side, then thru a door, still the same place. On the north was a big shanty, we always called, it. We kept the. empty egg cases, kerosene and oil barrels, etc. there. It had an old cook stove that we used in the summer when it was hot, a table, shelves etc. There was a door to the part of the house where we lived, a door with two tall glass panes.
I remember especially one day a carload of people came from Albert Lea. The ladies were very well dressed, and since they came by car they must have been very rich. So, Mama would tell us kids to keep out of the store, as we would get dirty sometimes like all kids Well, I wasn’t so old,’ but I grew up fast and looked lots older than I really was. My sister Luella was always a tease and mischief maker. On this day I was so curious to see those people that I got down on my hands and knees and was peeking thru the window of the shanty door. Luella sneaked up behind me and opened the knob and gave me a push. I went sailing in on my hands and knees and a very red face. Was I mad??
Sometimes I even got to cut the plug chewing tobacco. The cutter was something Iike a cheese cutter with a long handle. The men would order a plug of tobacco and I would cut it. , Boy, that was fun! Oyster crackers came in wooden barrels, cookies in boxes almost as big as a 30—dozen egg case.
One time a big rat must have come in an empty egg case. She was the smartest rat ever, I guess. She lived with us for several years. We tried every way to get rid of her, but she would show up again later. We called her the “Chicago Rat”. Our house was built, and then added onto like so many of the houses those days. The store part was added last, and the stairway and the room above the store was unfinished till after we quit the store, so the rafters were bare and open between them. That must have been her home. Many mornings when we got up, we would find that she had carried an egg almost to the top step before it broke, and our stairway had 16 steps. After we get our upstairs finished and made our store into a parlor and bedroom, one day I went upstairs to the spare bedroom and noticed the pillow was all mussed up. I went and straightened it up and here jumped up the “Chicago Rat”. I screamed and flew out the door, but I did have the presence of mind to close the door behind me. My father and brother Irvin happened to be in the house. They knew it was the “Chicago Rat”, so there would be a big fight. They took sticks and brooms with them so they were really ready for battle, and you should have heard them. There was yelling and hitting with their sticks, and finally, one thought he had
her cornered, when all of a sudden, she was trying to get up his pants They got her, but only after a terrific struggle.
Once we a pet banty hen. She would sneak into the shanty. She loved when the screen door was opened and go and lay an egg. One day Luella her so much, but she started to get underfoot so bad. was cleaning in there and the banty hen had come in unnoticed, when Luella backed up and stepped on her back, squeezed the egg right out of her, and she died! Such sorrow!
At the store maybe Mama would be mixing the bread dough. It was always started about four in the afternoon. We’d mix the Yeast Foam (square pieces, five in a package) and put it in milk that had been cooked. We might throw out the whey, or Mama would sometimes cook it and make cottage cheese or Primost (a Kind of cheese), or use potato water, and maybe even cook a potato or two, then mash it well into the water, then put in yeast and flour to make a very soft dough. Beat well and wrap up good–in wintertime, anyway—-and let rise till morning. Early next morning would make into dough and knead well. Then let stand till it doubled in size, knead again, and when it had raised again, make it into loaves. I remember making 14 loaves twice a week. It was delicious. Lots of times Mama would be kneading her dough and would have to wash hands, leave the dough and go wait on a customer, especially on cream hauling day.
For a few years Mama raised a few turkeys. One year one of our store customers living a couple of miles from us wanted to exchange turkey gobblers with her. She agreed, sight unseen. He looked alright, but after a while we found out he was mad. They had a lot of boys, and I suppose they had been teasing it. One day one of our little neighbor boys came up to play with Catherine, my little sister. Pretty soon, they came screaming and crying—the gobbler was chasing them. Mama told them to pick up a stick and chase him, but when he came after them, they didn’t dare and came screaming again. Mama had just washed the shanty floor and was out on the porch when they came screaming again, the gobbler after them, so she took the mop and hit him right on the head with the mop handle. The turkey went around in circles and finally dropped down and Mama thought she had killed him. She took him over to the woodshed, his neck was terribly swollen and his head was bleeding. She doctored him up and worked with him for two weeks, and then he died. She was so ashamed.
One time, my Dad had been to town to get groceries and quite often he would be a little bit late. Irvin, Emmet and I would clean the barn, get the cows in, throw down hay and feed both the cattle and the horses. Well, this time we were feeling really sorry for ourselves and as we were climbing upstairs to throw down hay, we were complaining and I said “Yeah, he stays away until he knows we have done all the chores, so he won’t have to do it.” Dad had come home and we didn’t know it, and he was just tying the horses to the manger when he heard me say this. “Oh is that so?” he said and I about fell down the hay chute: I’ll bet he had a big laugh when he told Mama, because they really did get a kick out of us.
One time when I was 15 or 16, I was helping the boys milk, when the cow I was milking kicked and got her foot in the pail, which made her kick even more. She kicked me against the other cow and I was pushed back and forth till they knocked the breath out of me. The boys came and got me and led me to the house gasping for breath and crying. I remember Andrew Tweed was there and he and Dad and Mama were trying to calm me down so I could breathe again. I was sure scared and I guess they were too.
Christmas Eve at our house was a big event. The gifts were sometimes not more than twenty-five cents, or so. Of course, Mama would make dresses, knit stockings or mittens or scarves besides, and when we got older we always bought something for each other, mostly a quarter or a dime, even. Books were twenty-five cents and we always got a few of them each year. We would have our baths, dress up in our very best clothes, wash our hair and fix it nice, all our chore had been done early. All the wood and coal was carried in, the ashes out, water pails filled, livestock fed and bedded especially well, milking done early. Then we would go to Uncle Nels Fields, or they would come to our house. Aunt Mary and Dad were brother and sister. Before that I guess we were together with Grandma Onstad. But they had moved quite a way away. We children were much the same age and we. were together so much, we would have a big supper: spare ribs, mashed potatoes, vegetable, gravy, Lutefisk, Rommegraut, Potato Lefse and some kind of cake, cookies, etc. like rosettes at Aunt Mary’s, with a dab of whipped cream and a cherry in the middle. We always had our best tablecloths, dishes etc. After we had eaten, we always read the Christmas Story, Luke 2. Then we would sing Christmas hymns. We were all good to sing, and I can still hear my Dad sing “To us is born a Blessed Child, To us a son is given, He was good to read, too. Dad would read at our place, Nels at their place. It meant so much to hear them. When we got up from the table, we would all shake hands and say “Tak for Maten (Thanks for the food, in Norwegian): and we kids would enjoy that so much.
After the dishes were washed, if the kids could wait that long, we would go in the parlor and sit. Each of us kids would have a recitation or song that we had learned either at School or Sunday School for our Christmas program. Then we would maybe sing another hymn or so and then open the gifts.
We always had to wait for each other to open his or her presents, so it took a long time. But, oh, what fun it was: Then if it didn’t get too late, we would play blind man’s buff, with our dads along, sometimes even our mothers. Both Dad and Uncle Nels were full of fun and really got into the spirit of things. They would get on their hands and knees and would reach out and grab us, and we would scream at the top of our voices. , My cousin Laura, on our Christmas card this year asked if I could remember how much fun we had, especially when our Dads played with us, and I certainly do.
Sometimes “Jule-Baks” (Christmas fooling) would come on Christmas Eve, but they usually came between Christmas and New Years. They were people with masks over their faces and dressed as crazy as they possibly could. -Sometimes a whole sled full of people would come at the same time, and they would fill our big kitchen. They would act silly, and make us laugh and we were supposed to guess who they One came one night and Edwin Field said, H Oh, I know who were. that is, by his long chin. We had one neighbor boy with an especially long scoop shovel chin. We were really embarrassed. Once there came two guys and we couldn’t guess who they were, but they were really some acrobats. They were just wonderful. When they finally took off their masks, they were some of Dad’s relatives, two of the quietest guys, Swen Huso, who married my second cousin, and William Berge, my second cousin. Of all the “Jule-Baks” we had, and there were many I think we would all agree, they were the best. We always had to feed them, Christmas Ale, made of Hops and yeast and what more I don’t know, but it was good, and of course we always had a lot of Christmas goodies on hand.
We did a lot of singing at our home. We always had quartets and duets going and we got an organ when I was really small. When MabeI got older, we bought the piano that Rev Fosness had in his home. He was the pastor of Winnebago Church. We girls all had a few music lessons and enjoyed playing and singing. My father was very good on the violin and my brother Irvin took some lessons on the violin and got to be pretty good, too.
We also read all the books we could get a hold of. I remember winter evenings, everybody was busy reading, or we were singing or embroidering or crocheting. My mother never sat down unless she had her knitting in hand. She knitted all of our stockings and mittens and made all our clothes. She was a very busy woman. We also had a lot of company. I never could see how Mamma got her work done, but she did.
We had a quartet that was really good…Mable sang bass, Irvin tenor, Luella melody and I sang alto. Sometimes the neighbors, especially the Tweeds would bring their company down to hear We enjoyed it as much as they did.
One time the teacher in our public school asked if we would be the program. We had Gertrude Hovland and a couple of the Kingland boys. We sang for an hour and a half.
The schoolhouse was full and some standing. There weren’t as many things going on those days. We had fun and some people said it was the best they had ever heard.
I went to Luther Academy at Albert Lea for a few months, but my folks needed me at home. I played piano in a Piano Recital. For warmup, I played my piece in another room and I did so awful I could hardly believe my piano teacher would let me go on, but at the Recital I did the best I had ever done, and the audience clapped for me to come back, but I was so nervous I had to hold onto chairs to get back to my place and I couldn’t have gone on stage again for anything.
One summer I cooked for a crew of tilers who were tiling by hand on Edwin Petersburg’s farm. They had two tents, one for sleeping and one for eating. There were about 8 men and I cooked three meals a day on a kerosene stove. The boss would go to Joice to Henry Kaasa’s store, and bring back groceries and meat in big boxes. He always brought candy for me. They were digging by hand, working hard, and could they ever eat. I was 18 years old.
About 1870 a child of Knut Onstads died. They were poor and needed a coffin. Hans Holtan had recently sawed lumber and so they got some boards from him, made a coffin, blackened it with soot and lard, Knut did some appropriate carving, lined the inside with white cloth and ended up with a very nice coffin. That story was remembered when Elmer Holtan came to visit me. In 1920, I was married to Elmer Holtan on the 13th of February.
We started up on a farm three miles north—east of Leland, which is now the Herbert Holland farm. It then belonged to his dad, Cleve Holland. It was there that our first child was born, January 23, 1921 at 8 AM on a very cold day, Stanford Eugene was born to us. We were very
happy.
The first time I gave Stanford his bath after Mamma had gone home, I sat as close to the heater as I could, as it was a very cold house, big rooms and 10-foot ceilings. He gave a kick and burned his little toe on the heater. He got a blister as big as his toe. Mable Branstad (Now Grothe) was our hired girl, just about fainted, so she finished the Job that day. I never sat that close again, it was a hard lesson. We lived there three years, then we moved to Elmer’s home place because his brother Arthur decided to go to Waldorf College. His mother was going to move to town. We lived there four years. In 1925 Ardith Genevieve was born so now we had two beautiful children. She was born in the same house as her father. In 1927 we moved to a farm over by Beaver Creek Church, known as the Felland place, and lived there two years. The farm was sold so we rented a place one-and-one-half miles north of Hanlontown, so in 1929 we moved to the Torgeson place.
Rolfe Jerome was born November 12, 1929 at home. At two weeks, he got Yellow Jaundice and had it for several weeks. At three or four months he got Bronchitis and was quite sick. Then Stanford brought the measles home from school and Rolfe, Ardith and Stanford had the measles. When Rolfe was eleven months, they all got the Whooping Cough, so it was a rough year. Rolfe weighed 19 pounds at six months and also when he was a year old. In 1932 Dorothy Jean was born on November 30. She weighed 10 pounds and was a healthy baby.
But then hard times struck us. We were all hailed out on June 23, 19?? The corn had been cultivated twice and the oats was heading out. My garden was beautiful. I had just weeded and hoed it, and one of my neighbors came and said it was the cleanest and nicest garden he had ever seen. By afternoon there was only black dirt, not a sign of anything green there. Our cornfield didn’t show a sign of corn; it was black, our oats looked like a cow had chewed it and spit it out. The corn and oats came back somewhat, the corn yielded 25 bushels an acre of very poor-quality corn and the oats yielded 16 bushels an acre of very light chaffy oats. In the fall some of our brothers and sisters who hadn’t been hit by hail came one Sunday, some with corn, some with seed oats. My uncle brought five 100-pound sacks of potatoes, etc. It was wonderful, some brought garden stuff too, and so with our cows, milk, chickens and our own beef and pork to butcher, baking our own bread, we were never hungry. We worked hard and were well and happy. We lived on that place six years, but it was kind of sandy during those dry years, so we surely went back financially.
In 1935 we moved one mile north to the Halvor Brunsvold place, where we lived for four years. My father, Fred Suby died of cancer on December 19th, 1934. He and mother were living in Joice at the time. The last two months of his life, we girls would go up and stay and help mother one day and one night, then another would come and do the rounds like that. He was very patient, but it was in his intestines so he couldn’t eat. He really starved to death, but he was glad and wanted to go home to his Savior. It was hard to see him go but were also glad to see his suffering ended.
In 1937 Elmer’s mother, Mrs. Halvor (Julia) Holtan died, and the family all wanted us to have the home farm, as all of the others had their own homes. We bought it and moved to the home place in 1939. Stanford graduated from Hanlontown High School in 1939, he stayed with the Elmer Brays until school was out.
The next year, Elmer said Stanford should decide if he really wanted to go to college or to farm. He wanted to raise potatoes, onions, etc. to make money to go to school. He had received a Scholarship to go to Waldorf College. That was one of the busiest years of our life. We had extra help weeding, then in the Fall to pick potatoes and onions, grade some two or three times, the onions anyway. We sold them by the carload, but barely made enough to pay expenses. Later we also raised carrots and cabbages, but we had the wrong kind of cabbage. They were the large flat kind, grew up to 14 pounds. Nobody wanted that kind unless you are a big family or make sauerkraut. We had a 1938 Ford pickup and Stanford traveled the countryside that fall and winter selling potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and onions.
Ardith was confirmed at Winnebago Church the first year we were there. She went to High School in Forest City and when she graduated, she taught country school in Ellington Township for two years. Then, she went to Seattle, Washington with two girl-friends, stayed with Aunt Nora (Elmer’s sister), and they all three worked at Boeing Aircraft. in late summer they came home again and she started Waldorf College, studying to be a Medical Librarian. She graduated with the second highest grade in her class of 1947. That fall she started her first job at the Lutheran Hospital at Fort Dodge. She worked there until her marriage to Harry Halvorsen in 1950.
All four of our children sang in the Waldorf Choir as long as they were there and Dorothy was a soloist. Both our sons were in the Army. Stanford was in World War 2 for three years and Rolfe was in the Korean War 2 years, one year of it in Korea. Both got to be Sergeants.
Rolfe married Maretta Ness in 1953. They farmed the Herbert Peterson farm west of Forest City and the Sawtell farm east of Thompson. Maretta taught school in Belmond, Iowa and Kiester, Minnesota. They bought the home farm in 1960. Dorothy married Herbert Heller in 1951. They have four children and have built their own home at Lake Washington, Mankato, Minnesota.
In 1960 we built our two-bedroom home on 436 Best Street in Forest City. The kids all came and helped us sand, varnish and paint inside. We moved in Feb 16. We love it very much and have already lived here 17 years (Feb 1977). We belong to Immanuel Lutheran Church. I am 7B years old and Elmer will soon be 84, but we live by ourselves and are both pretty well and happy. The children are very good to us and come and help us when we need something. We are very thankful to our Lord for giving us such a good long life.
I have lost both my brothers and a sister Luella who died December 22, 1976. Emmet died suddenly at his home in October 1975. Irvin was a great tenor singer died on Jan 5, 1970. My mother died in 1947. We have all had happy homes and are ready to go when God calls us. We have such fine great-grandchildren., too, and are expecting two more next spring.
I hope we can both see them and love them.
Postscript by Stanford:
On April 23 Grandma Sadie attended Ruth Holtan’s Award Luncheon at noon. She and Dad went home to rest. Milo and Catherine Dahl had also been at the luncheon and went home with so there was not much resting. Then back to the College for the evening dinner. She was in good spirits, and several very nice pictures were taken of her. She must have been very tired. Everyone was so busy. Ruth called her on Wednesday the 26th and could immediately tell by her voice that she needed attention. She said “I should have gone to the Doctor yesterday, but I was too weak!” Ruth made an appointment with Dr. Magat, who was in surgery. He took some test and kept her in the hospital for 6 days. She had a potassium deficiency, often brought on -by the heart medicine. She seemed to come along, came home on Wednesday. Rolfe and Sally Heller were there for dinner and they were going to watch some TV afterward. She complained of being tired so they suggested she lay down for a while. She started out, then veered off to the side so they helped her, soon saw she had a serious problem, then called the ambulance.
At the Forest City Hospital, she could talk a little, but complained of numbness on her right side. Later in the afternoon she seemed to have more feeling. Ardith offered to stay all night but they said that wouldn’t be necessary. In the morning, Ardith carne to visit and looking in the door immediately knew she was “out of it.” A new shift of nurses was on duty and weren’t aware that she was different. Dr. Magat sent her to Mason City where she was very nearly comatose for 2 or 3 days. Their tests showed that she had had a massive stroke, and that her chances of survival were 50 – 50 at best. A spinal tap showed so much blood the took another sample to make sure they hadn’t hit a vein. The doctor said there was a hemorrhage both in her brain and in the fluid surrounding her brain. After two weeks, they suggested she be returned to the Forest City Hospital.
She had a few pretty good days, knew who we were, said a few words, but could not move her right arm or leg. She could feed herself a little with her left hand. After two more weeks, she was taken to the Good Samaritan Home at Forest City where Dad visited her 110 times. We would talk to her or sing for her, she would say “that’s beautiful.”
Along about August, she apparently had another stroke and after that went down rapidly. Walter Holtan stayed with Dad for three weeks, but had to leave about a week before she died. On Sunday Morning, Sept 11, they called from the home and said she seemed to be going fast.
She died about 7:15 a.m. Several of us were at her bedside. We were ready to part with her- we really lost her in May. She apparently had no rational moments the last week or two.
Sne was buried on Sept 13. All 13 grandsons were pallbearers- taking turns.
Stanford, Ruth, Ardith, Rolfe, Maretta and Dorothy sang “The Lord Bless and keep you”
It was a beautiful day; the cemetery lot was so nice. In view of the homes of two of her children. All the children, 5 grandchildren (19) and greatgrandchildren (5) were there. besides many friends and relatives. Pastor John Hieronymous preached the funeral sermon. We will especially miss her this Christmastime. Sne was the center of all the activities. Dad and the children sponsored the Christmas Eve service over KSMN. Blessed be her memory.
As we went through her things, we again realized how busy she and Dad had been those last years. There were fancy stitched quilts for all the children and granddaughters. There were embroidered pillow cases for everyone and other things she had been making for Christmas gifts. What keepsakes they are!