Holm, Robert

HOLM, JENSEN, CARSENSEN, JOCHIMSEN

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 2/19/2003 at 17:43:51

From Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa by E. B. Stillman, 1907 Pg. 643
Robert Holm
There is a picture of Robert and his wife Robert Holm, who carries on general farming on section 10, Dawson township, is a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, born on the 16th of March, 1870. His parents were John C. and Bernadine (Jensen) Holm, who were likewise natives of that country. The father, whose birth occurred in 1834, died in Clinton, Iowa, in 1901, while the mother is still living there. In the family were five children, of whom four are yet living: Philip, a resident of Clinton, Iowa; Robert; Morris, who resides in Dawson, Iowa; and Julius, who is a minister of the German Lutheran church, now located in Texas.
Robert Holm was reared on his father's farm in Germany, and had the advantage of good education in the public schools of his native country. He was a youth of sixteen years when in 1886 he came to America, his home being established in Clinton county, Iowa, where he worked at farm labor for a few years. He then made a visit to his parents in Germany, but was told that he could not remain for he had left the fatherland in order to avoid serving in the army. He then induced his parents to sell their property in Germany and come to the new world with him. This they did and the father purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, up which Robert Holm now resides. The son remained with his father and assisted him in improving the farm until the latter's death, when he purchased the place. He now has a fine property, on which he has put six miles of tile, thus producing an excellent drainage which makes the land very fertile and productive. In addition to cultivating the cereals best adapted to soil and climate he also raises shorthorn cattle, Chester White hogs and blooded stock and makes a specialty of breeding and raising white Leghorn chickens and white Holland turkeys. He has become well known in connection with his stock and poultry raising interests and his business in this connection is quite profitable.
On the 7th of March, 1893, Mr. Holm was united in marriage to Miss Lena B. Carstensen, who was born in Jackson county, Iowa, on the 1st of January, 1873, and is a daughter of Godber and Dorothea (Jochimsen) Carstensen both natives of Germany. [The text is blurred here. The date "1st of January, 1873, and the names may not be spelled correctly.] On emigrating to the new world they became early settlers of Greene county, Iowa, and the father died in Dawson township in 1891, but the mother is still living. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Holm has been blessed with five children: George J.; Bertha; John H., who died at the age of four and a half years; Bernard T.; and Theodore J.
Mr. Holm votes with the democracy, but has never had desire for the honors and emoluments of office. He and his wife hold membership in the German Lutheran church and are well known in the community as representative young people, interested in all that pertains to progress and advancement in the community. Mr. Holm has led an active and useful life, industry being one of his salient characteristics and the basis of the success which he has achieved.