The Iowa Holtans- Halvor and Thomas
In 1866, after 4 years of working for his brother Eivend in Rock Dell, MN, Hans Halvorson Utabja and Margit Tarjeisdatter Nordgarden Holtan and their two oldest sons, Halvor and Thomas, headed out across the prairie for Winnebago County, Iowa. Here you can read Hans’ obituary, a story and photos of Margit. and several photos of Hans and Margit.
In this section, we will also tell the story of those two oldest sons (the three oldest had actually died on the ocean voyage and the train trip to Minnesota), Halvor and Thomas.
Halvor grew up in Iowa, helped his father Hans on the farm, and in 1888, accompanied his father as he began to move the family to North Dakota. He would have been unusual among his neightbors in that he went on to school at the Decorah Institute in Decorah, IA., taught school, both in North Dakota and in Iowa, but then came back to Mount Valley Township, married Gunhild Julia Thorvilson, sister to Aaste, Thomas’ wife, and farmed until his untimely and early death. We have his obituaries, many stories about Halvor and his children, and many photos.
Thomas stayed in Iowa with his mother Margit and the 8 younger children. Thomas never moved to North Dakota, but his mother and the rest of the family eventually made the move and lived out the rest of their lives there. Thomas married Aaste Thorvilson, they had 9 children together, and he died on the farm that Hans Holtan had first settled many years before. We have many stories and photos of Thomas and Aaste, group photos of the family, wedding photos of each of his children and also later photos taken in 1955 of each of his children and their spouses.
We’ve noticed that in these immigrant families, while the older sons farmed or perhaps, in the case of North Dakota, ran a store, often Younger Sons went to College and entered professions like medicine, higher education or pastoral ministry.
As we receive more information, we will have web pages for many of the next generation. Below, we will tell a few stories from Mount Valley Township of Elmer and Sadie Suby Holtan. Sadie’s father Fred had the Mt. Valley store just a mile east of the Holtan farms, and it’s where farmers could take their cream and the creamery would pick it up there, trade fresh eggs for groceries and certainly get fresh gossip. Later, Fred even started a church on that property. Here is The Story of My Life, by Sadie Suby Holtan an oral history told to and transcribed by her son, Stanford Holtan. She also tells a great story of her wedding in a story Phil entitled, Sadie’s Big Fat Norwegian Wedding and their first days of marriage. Stanford also did the same oral history for his dad in I Remember by Elmer Holtan
To help place the generations in Halvor Holtan’s clan, here is a 5 Gen Pedigree Chart for the Stan Holtan children