Notes for Katherine HOLST

Notes for Katherine HOLST

SOURCE: Obit, death certificate, Bob Whitman Gig Harbor WA.
(1986)

Katherine (Tena) Holst, wife of Willis Holdren, was born Aug 16, 1859, at Sabula, Iowa, south of Dubuque on the Mississippi River. She was the oldest daughter of Johann and Christine Holst, who had emigrated from Schleswig Holstein, then a province of Denmark in 1851, but a few years later claimed by Germany in the Prussian War. This war was the reason for the emigrants coming to America among them Johann Holst and some brothers and sisters and Christine Staack, whom Johann married after they reached America, from New Orleans where the ship docked, the party came up the Mississippi River to Sabula, Iowa. From Sabula the Holst family moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where they owned a hotel. Tena an Lena came with John, the oldest Holst son, to Deadwood, Tena was employed by Isaac Chase to care for his three small daughters while he took his wife to California for her health. Tena saved her wages and invested in cattle which ran with her father's heard on the prairie but th blizzard of 1887, many perished. Some were found ten miles southeast of home.

In 1888 Tena was married to Willis Holdren at Whitewood South Dakota Tena remembered the Indian scare of 1890-1891 when many families either gathered at the Rosander Store or moved to the Hills towns, but the Holdrens stayed home. When Tena was alone she had a gun handy and no one entered the house until she knew his identity. One of the highlights of Tina life was having the privilege of talking over the air on station KOBH, Rapid City, it was located on top story of the Sheraton-Johnson Hotel. She was accompanied by her sister Lena Holst Arndt. and Frank Glover, they were interviewed by Bob Dean, concering their life in early days in Dakota. Tena lived eleven more years on the farm after her husband died. Some of her grandchildren stayed with her, among them were Everett and Donald Adams,Katherine Schaff, and slso Patricia Holdren.

from the book Cowboys and Sodbusters page 40

NICKNAME: Tena