Ole and Marie Holtan (Copied from Washburn, North Dakota, Paper of Sept. 30, 1938) Probably written by Mary Ann Barnes Williams, veteran newswoman in Washburn
Ole Holtan was one of the pioneers who helped build McLean County, North Dakota. He was born Feb. 24, 1868, near Forest City, Iowa, but 51 years of his life were spent in McLean County. When a lad he was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith, a faith he never forsook throughout his long life.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hans Holtan, had come to the county in 1886 and the next spring, in 1887, when he was 19 years of age, he too came to make his home in North Dakota. He took a homestead on the quarter section where the road turns to go to Falkirk from the highway. There he brought his young bride, Marie M. Olson, whom he married Dec. 28, 1893. They began housekeeping in the sod shanty that Mr. Holtan had erected on his claim. He and Mrs. Holtan lived there for three years, before moving over to Mr. Holtan’s tree claim where the fine country home is now.
Death claimed the life of Ole H. Holtan, Friday, Sept. 23, 1938, at 5:15 p.m. He died at a Bismarck hospital, where he had been a patient for the past several weeks, following a second operation and where he had been earlier this summer for a similar operation, from which he had recovered. For the past year his health had been poor and last winter he and Mrs. Holtan made a trip to the west coast to spend several months visiting with their son and daughter in Los Angeles and Oregon. Early this summer the doctors advised an operation from which he recovered and was able to come home. A similar operation was again performed a few weeks ago, from which he was recovering until he became affected with uremic poison and which his weakened system was unable to throw off. His condition gradually grew worse until death came. His wife and children and brother were with him at the time. He was 70 years of age.
A good farmer he made his acres profit. As years followed years, he added to his holdings, until at his death he owned seven quarters of land and was also farming three rented quarters. In the early years he saw the need of diversified farming, and this he practiced with great success. For many years his purebred Holstein cattle had been in demand and in years when grain crops were light, he made the farm pay with his herd of milk cows.
He put much money back on the arm in the way of a fine country home, with modern conveniences, well equipped barns, for horses, cattle and hogs, machine sheds and a grain elevator. His large grain crops of some years made it necessary that he be equipped to clean and handle the grain, grind the feed, and store grain and the elevator on his place took care of this.
His cattle barn was equipped with a milking machine, which when his herd was large would be used for milking. Off the cattle barn was the milk shed for separating the cream. For many years he furnished cream to the stores here in town. Those who have known him in years past know of his success as a farmer.
Never a man to seek great honors, he went about it in his quiet, friendly way, doing good where he could and helping others where he could. He devoted much time and money in the building up of the community, always taking an active part in the religious, social and political affairs, which were for improvement. He was president of the Farmers Security Bank since it was organized 18 years ago. He contributed much to the building of the Sverdrup Lutheran Church north of town, as well as to the First Lutheran Church here in Washburn. He served as secretary of the church from 1901 to 1918.
Both he and Mrs. Holtan were parents to children not their own. After a tornado had killed the parents of the Olson children they took three of the boys to rear, the youngest of them was 17 months old and another came with a broken leg. They were also parents to the Nelson boy. When the lad had lost his parents and after the funeral, he came and climbed into the buggy and said he was going home with them. Neither said anything to the contrary and from then on they made a home for him until he grew to manhood.
Mr. Holtan was also a great worker in foreign missions, and contributed much to the mission in Madagascar. There he paid the expenses for the education of a number of children, one of whom became a minister of the church. Besides his wife, he is survived by his three children, four brothers, and three grandchildren.
Mr. and Mrs. Ole Holtan (Contributed by Mrs. Ole Holtan, Salem, Ore.)
Ole H. Holtan was born near Forest City, Iowa, Feb. 24, 1868. His parents, Hans Evenson Holtan and Marget Nordgaarden left their home in Telemarken, Norway, March, 1862, where they had lived since they were married Nov. 2, 1858. They had two sons, Halvor, born Dec. 20, 1859, and Tarjei, born May 15, 1861. There were no steamships at that time and they had to cross the ocean on a sail boat. The sea was rough and nearly everyone got seasick and besides that an epidemic of measles broke out on board. Halvor and Targie were stricken and died and were buried at sea. After nine weeks they were about to enter the St. Lawrence River when they were stopped by officials who quarantined the ship and they were sent to some island near Quebec. After some time, they were permitted to go on their journey but being immigrants and not able to speak the American language they were all put in a cattle car in which they traveled until they reached a small station in Wisconsin where they had to stop on account of the illness of Mrs. Holtan. This was July 29, 1862, and the birthday of their daughter, Helga. She lived only a few days. There was only a depot at this station and the agent and his wife did what they could for them. When Mrs. Holtan was able they started for their destination, this time in a wagon. A brother of Hans Holtan, Eivend Holtan, who was living near Rochester, Minn., met them and took them to his home Aug. 17, 1862.
This was about the time of the terrible Indian massacre which was to be called the most important Indian war since America’s first settlement and extended over five years of active operation. The Holtans and neighbors banded together for protection, they had most of their belongings packed in the wagons and the oxen nearby so when the warning came that the Indians were coming, they could at least try to get out of their way. Thanks to God they never came.
For five years Hans Holtan worked for and with his brother, Eivend until he had acquired enough money to immigrate to Winnebago County near Forest City, Iowa. Here lived some of his school mates who had written to him telling him of land that joined theirs which could be purchased for $1.25 per acre. With their two little boys, Halvor and Thomas, the Holtans started from Olmsted County, Minnesota, in a covered wagon drawn by oxen over poor roads which were not marked so they used the sun for their compass-fording rivers and streams. After many days they came to their friends and stayed with them until they had a log house partly finished. on the land he bought. With a great sense of thankfulness, they moved into their own house for the first time. They had a lot of hard work ahead of them but God blessed them in every way.
Feb. 24, 1868, their third son, Ole, was born. He was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith by Rev. I. M. Dahl at Winnebago church. By the time that Ole was of school age there were enough children in the neighborhood to have public school. All three boys helped their father on the farm and as the boys grew older, he bought more land, but it was getting higher priced. They had heard about the homestead land in North Dakota and in 1884 Hans Holtan decided to make a trip out there to see what he could find. When he came to Bismarck, he was informed there was homestead land available near Washburn. When he got there, he met a man by the name of Mikel Sather that wanted to sell his homestead. He had a little house and barn on it and it looked good to Hans Holtan, so he went back to Iowa and talked it over with his family. The next year, 1885, he came out here again and bought the homestead. His son, Halvor, came with him and filed on a tree claim. They went back to Iowa in the fall, the next spring, 1886, Hans Holtan and his oldest son, Halvor, brought a carload of horses with them and sold most of them. Halvor taught school in what was known as the Hammer school in the summer of 1886. That same summer Mrs. Hans Holtan and the four youngest children, Martin, Sarah, Gilbert and Theodore came out to North Dakota. That fall Halvor went back to Iowa alone and was married that winter. In the spring of 1887, Ole came to Washburn, McLean County, North Dakota, to help his father on the farm. He was then nineteen years old. In 1891 he took a homestead and a tree claim which was not far from his father’s farm, so besides living on his own land which was required by law, at least to sleep there every night six months of the year, he could help his father with the farm work too. In the fall of the year, he operated a threshing machine for his father for several years, using a horse power at first. When they got a steam engine that was great even if it had to be drawn with horses or oxen from place to place. They usually had a team of oxen along for that purpose. They had to measure the grain by hand and sack it. At that time the grain was shipped by boat on the Missouri River which runs near Washburn, or the grain was hauled by team and wagon fifty miles to Bismarck. On the return trip they usually had a load of goods for the merchants in Washburn which helped pay the expense of the trip which took four or five days. There was no railroad to Washburn at that time.
So far it has been all work and no play but they had many good times. Baseball was a great sport and Ole was very active in that. Fourth of July was a great day-people from all over the county came with their picnic dinners. It was all put on a big table in a shady bowery made from branches of trees and everyone helped himself. The Indians usually came from the reservation and camped down by the river a few days at that time. They provided entertainment with their dances and in return watched the white folks dance which amused them and they also enjoyed the baseball games.
On Dec. 28, 1893, Ole H. Holtan was married to a neighbor girl, Marie M. Olson. Her parents, Hans Fredrick Olson and Bertha Hanvold Olson, were married the first part of April, 1867, in Fluberg’s Church, Sondre Land, Norway. In a short time, they boarded a sail ship for America, in six weeks they landed and soon were on their way to their destination. July 20, 1868, their daughter, Marie Mathilda, was born near Albert Lea, Freeborn County, Minnesota. She was baptized by Rev. Wulsberg. Here she went to public school and Bible school. At the age of twelve, her mother took sick and was bedfast for over a year and, being the oldest of the children, she had to be the housekeeper for her father, one sister and two brothers, the youngest, fifteen months old, besides waiting on her mother. At the age of fifteen years, she was confirmed in the Lutheran faith by Rev. O. H. Smeby at Hayward, Minn. In August, 1885, she came with her parents to McLean County, near Washburn, N. Dak., where they had taken a homestead. She worked in Bismarck and at home until the spring of 1889 when she took up dressmaking which profession she followed besides helping at home until her marriage to Ole H. Holtan on Dec. 28, 1893. They had a church wedding in a schoolhouse that was used for a church, followed by a wedding dinner at the bride’s home for about fifty of their friends. For their wedding trip they did not go very far as they had to use horses and sleigh and they did not own that. They stayed with her folks until spring when they moved to Ole’s homestead. He had fixed up a one room frame building at the side of his sod shack. Besides seeding the few acres he had on his own land, he worked for his father that summer and went out threshing again in the fall.
Oct. 23, 1894, their first daughter, Mamie Belle, was born but God did not let them keep her very long. The next spring she took sick with pneumonia and died April 19, 1895. In June, 1895, Mr. and Mrs. Ole Holtan, her father, brother Dan and his brother Engebrigt made a trip to Benson County near Minnewaukan, N. Dak. They started out in a covered wagon and a team of horses over prairie in the direction they wanted to go, there were no roads. When night came, they camped until morning by some small lake-they had a good time, rain or shine. They visited some of Mrs. Holtan’s relatives who lived in Benson County. They were away about three weeks and enjoyed the trip very much.
The next winter they sold the homestead and rented a farm with more field for crops, thinking they could keep it for some years, but the owner wanted to farm it. That summer Ole built a log house on the tree claim. Mrs. Holtan’s father did the work as he was a carpenter by trade. On July 24, 1896, their son, Hubert Fredrick, was born. When he was three months old, they moved into their log house where their home has been ever since. The barn was made of sod. They had a few head of stock and a four-horse team. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Ole planned on taking a load of grain to Bismarck, which would take three or four days, but somehow, he did not get started in time to get back by Thanksgiving so he put it off until after the holiday. The night before Thanksgiving it started to snow and kept on all day into the next day. It was the worst snow storm they ever had, their sod barn was covered with snow all winter. Ole dug a tunnel in the snow from the house to the barn so, if another storm came, he would not have to go in the open. He came very nearly being lost in the first snow storm. This was a long winter but spring came at last.
In August, 1897, Arvy Nelson, a neighbor boy nine years old and an orphan, climbed into the Holtan wagon after his widowed mother’s funeral and said that he wanted to go home with them which he did and stayed until he was twenty years old. He went to public school and Bible school, was confirmed in the Lutheran faith by Rev. L. A. Breen; then he went to college and took up engineering. On Nov. 5, 1906, he went to Seattle to see his uncle and brother. There he got a job as engineer and made good ever since.
June 11, 1900, their daughter, Ellen Amelia, was born. In 1905 they made a trip to Iowa and Minnesota to see their old homes and they enjoyed very much meeting each other’s folks. They were away from home about six weeks. Gertie Lovik came back with them and later on when her father (Halvor B. Lovik) died, her sister, Edna, and brothers, Henry and Thomas, came and stayed about four years.
Nov. 6, 1906, their son, Lester Carlyle, was born. In 1907, they built their frame house, the barn was built in 1909 and the other buildings were built some years later. They had bought more land so they had quite a few acres to farm by this time and had to hire some help in the summer time. In 1913, Mrs. Holtan’s father passed away and her mother came and stayed with them. Her health was poor but she stayed with them for twenty years; she was 88 years old when she passed away Aug. 10, 1933.
June 25, 1915, Mrs. Holtan’s brother, Olaf, and his wife and one little girl were killed in a tornado at Grassy Lake, Alberta, Canada. They left six other children, the oldest twelve years and the youngest fifteen months old. A little three-year-old boy had his leg broken in the storm and they brought him home on a stretcher when they brought the other children home. They took care of the two oldest and two youngest boys until they were of age. They were all brought up in the Lutheran faith. Mr. and Mrs. Nygaard, Mrs. Holtan’s sister, took care of a boy and girl and gave them schooling.
Jan. 2, 1917, Ole’s brother, Halvor, died; Ole, Engebrigt, Martin, and Gilbert went to Forest City, Iowa, to the funeral; also Horace Holtan, Halvor’s son. Horace took sick while there and could not come home for some time. During the winter, 1918, Ole took sick with rheumatism and was in bed a long time. When spring came, he was somewhat better and went to Mud Baden near Minneapolis and took treatments and got well after that.
Oct. 30, 1918, Ole’s sister, Mrs. Thomas Grothe, passed away. The following year the family got sick with the flu except Mr. and Mrs. Holtan–there were eight sick in bed about six weeks. Grandma Olson got sick with the flu too. Thanks to God they all got well.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Holtan enjoyed working for their church and foreign missions. At one time Ole provided funds to two native boys of India for a Christian education to become missionaries in their own country. He also contributed much to the mission in Madagascar. There he paid the expenses for the education of a number of children. Never a man to seek great honor, he went about in his quiet, friendly way, doing good where he could and helping others where he could. He devoted much time and money in the building up of the community, always taking an active part in the religious, social and political affairs, which were for improvement. He was president of the Farmers Security Bank from the time it was organized until his death which was a period of eighteen years. He contributed much to the building of the Sverdrup Lutheran Church north of Washburn, as well as to the First Lutheran Church in Washburn. He served as secretary of the church from 1901 to 1918. Mrs. Holtan was president of the Ladies’ Aid from 1895 to 1920. March 1, 1922, their son, Hubert, was married to Mildred Nelson Herred.
In June, 1923, they made a trip to Yellowstone Park in company with their children, Ellen and Lester Holtan, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Holtan, Howard and Earl, Mrs. W. C. Jertson and Gilbert Holtan. On their way they stopped at Big Timber, Mont., to visit Mr. and Mrs. Henry Holtan who lived on a ranch near there. It was a thrill to see it snowing on the mountains at that time of the year. The Fourth of July they were in Yellowstone Park and the boys played snowball at Mount Washburn. They took their time and camped when night came; they had a good time and enjoyed seeing a lot of the country they had not seen before. They were away about three weeks.
Feb. 10, 1934, their daughter, Ellen Amelia, was married to Austin Leo Elvin. They lived in Bismarck, N. Dak., until the fall of 1936 when they moved to Salem, Ore. In the spring of 1934 Ole’s sister, Elsie, got sick and she could not stay alone so she stayed with the Holtans except when she was in the hospital where she passed away Nov. 26, 1934.
Nov. 26, 1935, their son, Lester Carlyle, was married to Shirley Grace Fawkes of Los Angeles, Calif. In 1938 they built a home in Burbank, Calif., and moved there. Ole’s health began to fail in 1936 and he decided to quit farming and Hubert took over the farm work on his father’s farm in 1937, having sold his own farm.
In the fall of 1937, the Holtans decided to take a trip to the coast Ole said he always wanted to see the ocean as he had heard his parents talk so much about it. Their daughter, Ellen, lived in Salem, Ore., where they arrived the first part of December, 1937. While there Ellen and her husband decided to go to California too to see Lester and his wife so the Holtans and Elvins drove to Los Angeles and enjoyed the trip very much. They arrived at Lester’s Christmas eve and his wife took them to the airport to see Lester come in with one of the airplanes that he was piloting. On New Year’s Day they took them out to the Rose Bowl to see the Rose Parade. It took over three hours for the parade to pass. It was beautiful and there were many thousand people watching the parade. They saw many other places of interest too. The Elvins had to go back home but Ole did not feel well so they stayed a day or two longer, then he thought he could make the trip as far as Oregon but when they got out a short distance, he got sick again and had to go back to Lester’s. Mr. and Mrs. Elvin went on home. Lester called a doctor and he seemed to help him. In a few days he was up and around but thought they had better stay and get a rest. Lester had a cottage at Hermosa Beach where his parents stayed about a month. They enjoyed it there and walked down to the sea shore almost every day and watched the fishing boats come in from way out on the ocean. They also enjoyed watching the young folks swim in the ocean. One day Lester took them out in the desert to Palm Springs, a three hundred mile drive. The first part of February they took a train for Salem, Ore., and stayed with the Elvins a few days then went to Seattle to see Hanley Holtan. He took them on ship to Victoria, B. C., a six-hour ride on the ocean which they enjoyed very much. From Seattle they took the train to Waterville, Wash., where Arvy Nelson, now Frank Webber, the first orphan boy that stayed with them, lived. They had a good visit with him and his family. They had three daughters. He took them to see the Grand Coulee Dam that was being built at that time and came back by Soap Lake,-a three hundred mile drive that day. The next day they took the train for home but stopped at Big Timber, Mont., to see Mrs. Henry Holtan, then a widow, and her boys. The next day they continued on their way home and arrived there about the first of March, 1938. They enjoyed the trip but Ole did not feel so well again. He went to see a doctor in Bismarck and he told him to go to the hospital for a few days that perhaps they could help him and they did. He came home but wanted to stay in Washburn to be near the doctor, so they stayed at Gilbert Holtan’s for a while but soon had to go to the hospital again. This time he had an operation from which he was recovering until he became affected with uremic poisoning which caused his death Sept. 23, 1938.
Funeral services were held Sept. 26 from the First Lutheran Church in Washburn with Rev. M. G. Berg officiating. Burial was made in the Sverdrup Lutheran Cemetery north of Washburn. Blessed be his memory.
Mrs. Holtan stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Holtan until about Christmas time. Mrs. Gilbert Holtan was not very well as she had a stroke in 1937, which left her side partly paralyzed so she could not get around very well Mrs. Marie Holtan did the housework for her until they got other help and then stayed with her sister, Mrs. H. C. Nygaard, until May 27, 1939, when she went to visit Dr. and Mrs. Theodore Holtan at Waterville, Minn. While there, the Holtans in Iowa and Minnesota had a picnic at Austin, Minn., which they called the “Holtan Reunion.” Mrs. Holtan had the pleasure to be with them and also to go and visit some of her relatives. She came back to Washburn Aug. 8, 1939, and stayed with her sister again. Ellen wrote and wanted her mother to come and stay with them a while, so she arrived in Salem, Ore., the day before Thanksgiving, 1939, and stayed all winter and the next summer. Shirley and Lester wanted her to visit them at Burbank, Calif., so she went there for Thanksgiving, 1940, and stayed until after Christmas and came back to Salem just before New Year’s Day. She went down and back by plane, her first plane ride, which she enjoyed very much. It took only six hours to go 1,000 miles.
March 24, 1941, Rodli Lester was born to Shirley and Lester C. Holtan. When the baby was six weeks old, they came by plane to Salem, Ore., for a visit at the Elvins.In the early summer, 1941, Dr. and Mrs. Theodore Holtan visited the Elvins at Salem and wanted Mrs. Holtan to go back with them to Washburn, N. Dak., and as her sister and husband were going to celebrate their golden wedding July 27, she thought it was a good chance for her to get back for the wedding so she went with them. They also visited at Vancouver, B. C., and she enjoyed the trip very much.
Hubert’s wife, Mildred, had been sick that summer and spent much of the time in the hospital. The day of the golden wedding she had to go to the hospital again but did not get any better. She passed away Aug. 12, 1941. A day or two before that Hubert took very sick with encephalitis and had to stay in the hospital and was unable to attend Mildred’s funeral. He came home in September but was not very well. Thanks to God he got well. He had three children that needed a parent’s guidance. His mother stayed and helped with the housework. In the summer of 1942 Ellen came for a visit and while there Hubert’s daughter, Catherine, was married to Earl L. Wilson Aug. 28, 1942. Hubert’s mother kept house for him until 1946 when he and his mother went to Salem, Ore., for a visit with the Elvins. Esther Holtan stayed and kept house for the boys while they were gone. Hubert went to visit his brother, Lester, at Burbank, Calif., and at the same time experienced his first plane ride. His mother did not go along as she was not feeling well at that time. Hubert went home shortly before Christmas but his mother stayed in Salem until the first of July, 1947. Then she went back to North Dakota and stayed with Hubert and the boys the rest of the summer. On Nov. 11, 1947, she fell on the dining room floor and broke her hip and was taken to the Bismarck hospital and had to stay there until the first of April, 1948. While she was in the hospital her daughter, Ellen, from Salem, Ore., came to see her and while there she took sick and had an operation from which she recovered and then went back home. After Mrs. Holtan left the hospital, she stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Johnson until Hubert got someone to do the housework for him as she was not able to get around very well. The neighbors and relatives had a surprise party for her on her eightieth birthday, July 20, 1948, which she enjoyed very much but said she did not feel worthy of so much being done for her.
In September, Mr. and Mrs. Elvin (Ellen) came from Salem, Ore., for a visit to Huberts and they wanted her to go back with them and stay a while, which she did and arrived in Salem September, 1948. Hubert F. Holtan and Emma Slovarp were married Nov. 19, 1948.
Lester and his wife wanted the Elvins and his mother to come and spend Christmas with them at Burbank, Calif., which they did. They boarded a plane at Portland one evening and arrived home just before New Year, 1949. Mrs. Holtan has been staying with her daughter, Ellen, ever since.