Translated from 'Nordmændene i Amerika' by Martin Ulvestad. 1907. Translated by Olaf Kringhaug Lewis and Clark County People often ask me the question, "Who was the greatest Norwegian in America?" I answer that, "There are two who are the greatest," - and both were born to simple, utterly poor but honest people, both have worked very hard and both are modest in their conduct to this very day. As a public figure, naturally Senator Knute Nelson is the greatest among us. The Norwegian who has achieved the most in an industrial and commercial respect, however, is called Anton M. Holter. He lives in Helena, Lewsi & Clark Co., Montana and was the first Norwegian settler in that State, as he had already settled there in 1863. Nelson is spoken of elsewhere. But here I have decided to give a detailed account about Holter (whose biography is otherwise little known to Norwegians) mainly to show what the rest of us (at least partly) can achieve if we pull ourselves together and follow his path. Nor can I ignore what we owe such men - at the very least we owe them thanks and recognition. Then there is another fact that in our own interest we should always remember - the fact that when we honour those who have cast some lustre on us, we gain as a people. On the other side we must remember that envy is the worst illness that we Norwegian-Americans have been prone to and it would be in our best interest to watch out for it in the future. But, back to Holter. His interests are so extensive that he is away most of the time. Unfortunately I have not found him at home during my travels in Montana. Therefore I permit myself to utilize an account about him that appeared some years ago in "Illustrerte Husbibliothek", published by John Anderson Pub. Co., Chicago. The author writes as follows: "On my first visit to Helena, Montana's capitol, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of that place's and the State's most prominent Norwegian and in a couple of later visits I was able to renew and extend that acquaintance. Even though Mr. Holter seems to be that busy city's busiest businesman he still had a few minutes to spare for a chat and in his pleasant home I spent a couple of educational and entertaining evenings. I found this man, who the City's and State's citizens look up to as a leader in all important industrial and public enterprises, so modest and taciturn that, even though I flatter myself that I have considerable skill as an interviewer, I found it difficult to prevail upon him to speak about himself or anything about his life and activities. When I gave him to understand that I wished to collect data for a biographical sketch about him in "Illustrerte Husbibliothek", his normally friendly face took on an offended expression and he suggested tha! t according to Norwegian tradition it would be soon enough to write his biography when he was dead. But when I explained to him the purpose of these biographical sketches was partly to make the readers aware of men who had risen to prominent positions and partly to assemble data for future historians who will write histories about Scandinavians or Norwegians in America, he relented and directed me to 'Magazine of Western History' where I would find a rather reliable, if brief, biography of him. The following is written partly from that source and partly from other sources. Anton M. Holter was born at Moss the 29th June 1831. He had two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. His father, who was a seaman, perished when Anton was just eight years old and since his mother was in poor circumstances he was raised by her brother who was a farmer. After having received the usual schooling in reading, writing and religion in the circuit school of that time, he left his uncle's house and was apprenticed to a butcher. As a boy he had a great desire to become a seaman like his father but because of that sad conclusion, his mother and relatives convinced him to give that up. He found the butcher trade so revolting that within a year he left it and went into apprenticeship with a carpenter, who offered him free board and 10 spesiedaler a year for the first three years. The trades apprentices of that time did not seem to have the same opportunity to obtain book learning as later for the only training in arithmetic the boy received was from his b! rother, an hour in the evening for four evenings. At the age of 23 Anton M. Holter decided to go to America - a land to which his thoughts had been directed for it was on a trip to America in 1839 that his father perished in a shipwreck. He arrived in Quebec on a sailship the 25th May 1854. Right after his arrival he received a taste of the many dangers that one is exposed to in this country when the immigrant train had an accident in which five of his fellow passegers were killed. Before the immigrants arrived at their destination of Iowa, cholera broke out among them and at a place near Rock Island they were placed in quarantine. However, Holter was fortunate to ecape with his chest on his shoulder to a nearby steamboat and even though he did not know any English he reached Winneshiek County, where he found many of his countrymen. Here he revealed one of his features to which he attributes much of his later prosperity, namely farsightedness. While other carpenters would rather be unemployed than accept less than the us! ual pay of a dollar a day he decided, against his friends' counsel, to accept an offer of steady work for 20 dollars a month. He put his spare money into real estate that rose so rapidly in price that after a year he had a worth of 3000 dollars. Like many other immigrants who had not lived long enough in the country to begin to feel at home there, but had been fortunate enough to accumulate a small fortune, Holter began to think of going back to his fatherland where he with such an amount in his pocket would be seen as a rich man. But his desire to see more of this great land took over and the next four years he spent alternately working at his trade and making trips to Missouri, western Iowa and northern Minnesota. The latter two areas were occupied at that time by the warlike Sioux Indians. The great depression of 1857 almost completely washed away Holter's fortune and most of 1859 he lay sick with swamp fever and brain fever. By the spring of 1860 he was well enough that he and his brother Martin M. Holter, who had now arrived in the country, could join a company that wished to seek their fortunes in the unknown area that was described by the vague name of Pike's Peak - now Colorado. In the following 21Ž2 years the brothers earned a bit of money here, partly from farming and partly by mine work. It was at this time that the immensely huge gold finds were discovered at a place later called Virginia City, Montana. Mr Holter had already learned that prospecting and digging for gold was an uncertain occupation, but it was exactly because of this uncertainty and the great fortunes that could sometimes suddenly be earned, that it has such an attraction for people and that in every gold camp there are excellent opportunities to earn money in completely secure ventur! es. He decided therefore to go to Virginia City to erect a sawmill there to supply the rapidly growing city with building materials. The 16th September 1863 Mr. Holter left Denver in the company of a man by the name of Evanson and with the most necessary machinery for a sawmill loaded on wagons drawn by oxen, and after innumerable dangers and frightful hardships they arrived on the 1st September at Alder Gulch, 18 miles from Virginia City, where they decided to build their sawmill after having left behind almost everything but the machinery on the way because of the deep snow.. Mr Holter now had an excellent opportunity to show and develop another feature in his character, a spirit and energy that defied opposition and adversity. The great snow mass would have frightened off almost everyone else from taking on any building before the spring, but Mr. Holter undauntedly began the work. A road had to be built through the forest and since the snow was too deep for the oxen, a hand sled had to be constructed and the timber pulled out on it. Then the timber was sawn with a hand saw into planks for the mill. There was no smithy in the area so an axe had to be used as an anvil and the bellows made from a raincoat. That part of the equipment that was used to feed the saw had gone missing on the way, but Holter was inventive enough and arranged a system of ropes to that purpose. Despite all the difficulties the sawmill was erected by the two men with only one other man's help for a short time, and several thousand feet of boards and planks were sawn befo! re the snow left the fields. That these sold for a fantastic price, need not be said. The next summer Evanson returned to Colorado to buy more machinery but instead he bought oxen and wagons that he loaded up with flour, nails and an old planing mill. On his return trip he was snowed in at the Snake River, where the oxen died of starvation and the goods were lost with the exception of a few sacks of flour and several hundred pounds of nails that in the spring of 1865 he brought to Helena, a new mining camp called Last Chance Gulch where he sold the flour for a hundred dollars and the nails for 11Ž2 dollars a pound. But Evanson's unfortunate trip had caused the business such a loss that it was seen as wisest to quit. Mr. A. M. Holter now took his brother Martin, who had recently arrived in the Territory, as a partner in the firm A. M. Holter & Bro. In the meantime A. M. Holter had built a sawmill in Helena and soon after he built the first planing mill in the Territory. In 1867! the brothers opened the first general store in Helena, but one line after another was given up until the business only dealt with hardware. In 1887, Martin Holter withdrew from this branch of the business and A. M. Holter formed the A. M. Holter Hardware Company - the first business of that sort in the State. However, Mr. Holter has not just expanded his lumber business until he now owns large tracts of forest in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, but he has also bought shares and parts in gold, silver, copper and coal mines until he is now one of the largest mine owners in the country. Besides he is owner or part owner of a large number of industrial and commercial enterprises and bank companies. To give the readers an understanding of his extensive business holdings, we can state here that he is a part owner and director of 28 companies that own and operate mines, smelters, stamp mills etc, of 2 lumber companies (as well as partner in the lumber firm A. M. Holter & Bro.), of 2 hardware companies, 3 waterworks and water power companies, 1 brickworks, 1 foundry, 2 land companies, 2 electric light companies, 2 streetcar companies, 1 national bank, 1 sampling works company and 1 gas company. He is president of 16 of the 48 companies and has been the founder of 46 of them. Ev! en though some of the mines are operated at a loss, it is just a trifle compared to the riches that some of them will deliver. When we take into account that it is only a few years since Holter laid the basis for his fortune, its great size must be seen as surprising. As already pointed out, Holter's activities stretch far beyond his State's borders. It has been aptly said, "While the Pacific's waves crash on the banks of his forests in Oregon, the Atlantic sprays its foam on his copper smelter's walls in Bridgeport, Connecticut." About Mr. Holter's life and activities, his biographer C. P. Connolly in the aforementioned article writes, "Mr. Holter is one of those active and tireless spirits and it is to that that any future that families that wish to live in the Northwest, especially Montana, will to a large degree owe to the excellent inheritance that awaits them. He does not possess only the ability to make plans for magnificent projects, but also to complete them. He is one of Helena's pioneers and no one there receives a greater degree of their contemporaries' esteem. As a Republican he has filled several offices with honour to himself and to his voters' satisfaction. He was the first Republican to be elected to any position in Helena. In 1886 he was elected as a member of the school board and served as such for three terms.* He was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature in 1878 and in 1880 elected as a member of the City Council in Helena and was its President. In 1889 he was elected! a member of the State Legislature. For two terms he was President of the Chamber of Commerce. For a long time he was the President of The Montana Pioneer Association and on his resignation of that office he gave a speech at the annual meeting in 1890 that drew much attention. It is just weak praise to say about Mr. Holter that his career, from the instant he fearlessly flung himself agaisnt the inexorable natural forces and the difficulties that meet every young man in a new and unoccupied land, has been honourable and historic. Even though Montana, when Mr. Holter came there, was rich in opportunities, also at that time there was much lawlessness and danger for life and property. Only those who earned that progress that many pioneers have achieved had the courage to throw themselves into these dangers, difficulties and want. Only an undaunted spirit could challenge the adversities that Mr. Holter had to undergo. In his journeys alone in the wild and almost unknown areas of the Rockies he had many a meeting with robbers, from which his courage and resourcefulness saved him. Mr Holter told me about one of those encounters one evening in a manner that suggested that he, in those days, saw it as an everyday occurrence. He had visited a mining camp and had received a lot of money. Accustomed to keeping an eye out for people with a suxpicious appearance, he was soon aware that a man followed on his heels wherever he went. He immediately suspected him of being a robber. When he had gone a short way on his trip home and into some woods, he dismounted at a place where he he could see well back on the trail. He tied his horse and lay down at the side of the road with his revolver in his hand and a log under his head so he could see the road. Quite right! A rider came after him at full gallop. He did not see Holter before he spotted the big revolver and it must have seemed as big as a cannon to him. When the man rode past Holter, he cast a frightened glance back at his lost loot and Holter recognized him as the man who had followed him in the camp. Wh! en the robber had ridden by, Holter mounted his horse and followed him with his revolver aimed at him until he took a side route. From the top of a hill, Holter could see that he had taken a detour back to the camp. In the book 'Vigilante Days and Ways' one can read a detailed account of an encounter that Holter once had with infamous highwayman Ives and one of his comrades. Even though Holter always carried a revolver, he worried so little about robbers that he neglected to keep it in serviceable condition. When he saw the two strangers, he pulled out his revolver to be prepared 'in case of need', he found it was so rusted that it would not revolve. Therefore he had to wait for the robber's arrival unarmed. With his revolver aimed at Holter, Ives demanded his money, he delivered his empty wallet. This did not satisfy the robber, who then asked him to empty his pockets but only in one of them there were a few bills. Exasperated by the poor result the robber threatened to kill Holter if he could not come up with more money, but when Holter began to leave, the robber regretted he had been merciful and shot at him. By looking back at the same instant, Holter noted that the robber was re! ady to shoot him so he dropped suddenly and the bullet went through his hat and creased his head. The robber shot again but it misfired. Holter now took to his heels and before the robber could catch him a rider came into view and therefore they thought it advisable to flee. In the struggle against difficulty, in which Mr. Holter has wrested a rich result from a hard nature for himself and his, he has made resolution and perseverance his most conspicuous feature. His judgement and vision has often been of value to the public and he has always been active to advance the public good. He is a man of modest and straightforward demeanour, a deep and logical thinker and when he expresses his opinion publically or privately, he is listened to with respect. He is a representative of his fatherland's pluck." VorFrelsers Congregation, that was established in Helena in 1890 by Pastor N. N. Bø, belonging to The Norwegian Synod was the first Norwegian congregation in the county. Its church was built the same year. The Methodists als have a congregation and church there. 'Montana Folkeblad' was started in Helena in 1890. See the section, 'Norwegian-American newspapers and periodicals' In Madison County there is a place called Norwegian Gulch but no Norwegians - at least not now. *It can be added that he was elected Railroad Commissioner (for Montana Territory) in 1876. And when it says 'he was the first Republican to be elected to any public position in Helena' it should say in Lewis and Clark County instead of Helena and it should be pointed out that Montana was overwhelmingly Democratic at that time so it speaks doubly well for the Norwegian and Republican Holter that he was victorious in the election. -- M.U. ==== NOR-OPPLAND Mailing List ==== Make sure you check out the other lists available here for Norway: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/NOR/ ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx

Hi all, I see there is a new Aust Agder mail list if anyone is interested. After I started this list, I thought I should have done for both on one list, but could not change it. The hubby only has ancesters from Vest Agder anyway. You can join here: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/NOR/NOR-AUST-AGDER.html Margit