Hjortholm, Rev. Christen H.

HJORTHOLM, HANSON, CHRISTENSEN, LOBENSTEIN

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 5/19/2009 at 12:37:16

History of Hamilton County Iowa, Vol. II, p. 35

REV. CHRISTEN H. HJORTHOLM

Rev. Christen H. Hjortholm, pastor of West Trinity Norwegian Lutheran church of Ellsworth, was born in Denmark on the 3Oth of April, 1865, and is a son of Hans J. Hanson and Dorothy Christensen. The parents were born, reared and married in Denmark, whence they emigrated to the United States in 1866, locating in Columbia county, Wisconsin. The father, who was a farmer, there engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1882, when he removed with his family to Brown County, South Dakota, where he filed on a homestead. He engaged in the improvement and cultivation of his farm until his death, which occurred on May 25, 1901, at the age of sixty-six years. He was survived by the mother, who passed away on the 19th of December, 1905, in her sixty-third year. They were the parents of thirteen children, our subject being the second in order of birth.

Mr. Hjortholm was in his infancy when his parents emigrated to the United States, and a youth of seventeen years when he accompanied them on their removal to South Dakota. In the acquirement of his education he attended the public schools and later became a student in The St. Olaf Academy and College. Having decided to adopt the ministry for his life vocation, after graduating from the latter institution he matriculated in the Lutheran Theological Seminary of the United Norwegian Lutheran church of America, then located in Minneapolis but now in St. Paul. He was ordained in 1896, and soon thereafter he went to Monona County, Iowa, where his first-pastorate was located. He remained there for four years, and at the expiration of that time accepted a call from Zion Norwegian Lutheran church in Duluth, Minnesota. In 1904, he resigned this charge to become pastor of West Trinity, the duties of which he is still discharging. He has a large parish, and during the period of his pastorate has greatly endeared himself to the members of his congregation by the efficient and capable manner in which he has directed its interests.

In 1889, Mr. Hjortholm was married to Miss Caroline Lobenstein, a daughter of John and Anna Lobenstein, natives of Norway, who came to America in 1851. They were married in Wisconsin, and soon thereafter removed to Minnesota, where the father passed away in 1862. He was long survived by the mother, whose death occurred in 1902. Mrs. Hjortholm, who is the second in order of birth in a family of three, was born on the 14th of December, 1859. A son and a daughter have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hjortholm. The former, Herman, was graduated from St. Olaf's Academy of Northfield, Minnesota, with the class of 1911 and is now teaching in Hamilton County, and Anna, their daughter, is a student in the public school.

His political support Mr. Hjortholm accords to the republican party. He is a man of high standards of citizenship and progressive ideas, whose energies are largely expended in promoting the general welfare of the community.