Nich. Frederick Holtorf (1875-1938)

HOLTORF

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/3/2023 at 20:52:41

Nicholas Frederick Holtorf
(January 20, 1875 – December 4, 1938)

Fred Holtorf has spent his entire life in Calhoun County and is numbered among its progressive, wide-awake young farmers. He is now living on section 4, Butler Township, where he is operating a tract of arable land, the well tilled fields bringing him good harvests. It was in this township that Mr. Holtorf first opened his eyes to the light of day, his birth occurring on the 20th of January, 1875. He is the second eldest of the living sons of C. C. and Margaret (Spies) Holtorf, in whose family were ten children. The family is of German lineage and the parents are well known farming people of the county, the father having acquired a very valuable property here as the result of his enterprising efforts.
Fred Holtorf obtained his education in the German schools and was confirmed at the age of fourteen. Through the period of his boyhood and youth he assisted in the cultivation of the home farm, giving his father the benefit of his services until twenty-six years of age. When a boy he labored in field and meadow through the summer months and in the winter season attended school. He now resides on section 4, Butler Township, where he rents one hundred and seventy acres of land belonging to his father. He took up his abode on this place in the spring of 1901 and in connection with the cultivation of the cereals best adapted to this climate he is also engaged in stock-raising. He is a young man, possessing laudable ambition, determined purpose and industry, and is already winning success.
On the 1st of January, 1901, Mr. Holtorf was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Burns, in the German Lutheran Church, of Pomeroy. She is a daughter of John and Helena (Onon) Burns, both of whom were natives of Prussia, Germany. In their family were eight children and in order to provide for his household the father has always followed the occupation of farming, being a well known agriculturist of this community. His children are Mrs. Holtorf; Margaret, who is living in Pomeroy; Amelia, deceased; Fred, also a resident of Pomeroy; two who died in infancv: and Annie and Louise, at home. In the high school of Pomeroy Mrs. Holtorf completed her education and is a cultured lady who has made her home a hospitable one and a favorite resort with their many friends. Both our subject and his wife hold membership in the German Lutheran church, and belong to the Pomeroy synod. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat, and as every true American citizen should do keeps well informed on the issues of the day, but has never sought office, his energies and attention being fully occupied by his farming pursuits. [Source - Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.569]