Born Tjerand Torbjørnson, my grandfather came into this world in a dirt-floored cottage on the edge of a fjord near Håvik in Norway in 1873. His entire immediate family came to America from Norway in three waves between 1886-1889. They first lived in northwest Iowa, before finally settling on a farm outside of Madison, Minnesota in 1903. My grandfather, who had changed his name to Charles Torbjorn Hovick, remained in Iowa, but when a job offer came from the grain elevator in Madison, he finally joined his family in 1904.
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| Madison, Minnesota in 1909 |
He met my grandmother, Pauline Braaten, shortly after arriving, and they were married on May 18th of that same year.
My grandfather, often called Charley, has
been described to me as a gentle, loving, and funny man. He had only the equivalency of
an eighth-grade education. But despite this, he understood the value of education, and
would go to great lengths to insure that his three daughters received the finest education that he could provide. What makes this all the more remarkable is that Grandpa’s dedication
was so counter to the prevailing attitudes of the day. My Aunt Mildred summed up those attitudes like this: “Education for girls? What a waste of good money when all they
would do would be to get married. And who needs learning for keeping house and
raising children?”
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| The Wedding of Charles Hovick and Pauline Braaten, 1904 |
In 1915, an old family friend, Mr. H.E. Loe from Linn Grove, Iowa offered my grandfather a job managing a
farm five miles north of Madison. So at the age of 32, he, along with his wife, Pauline Braaten Hovick, 31, and daughters Mildred, 7, and Signe, 3, left the hubbub of small town life and moved out to the farm.
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| The H.E. Loe Farm |
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| The Barn at the H.E. Loe Farm |
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| The Hovicks during the time they lived on the farm back: Pauline, Mildred front: Charles, Signe |
Their financial well-being was wholly
dependent upon the success of each year's crops. One year on a hot, sunny summer day, the
Ladies Aid Society was meeting at the Hovick farm. The fields looked good, and
they were optimistic for a good harvest. But a freak summer storm swept in,
complete with driving rain and hail, and by the time the Ladies went home, the
crops were devastated.
However, the fall harvest of 1925
was an exceptionally good one.
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| Charley Hovick the Farmer |
In Remember,
my Aunt Mildred’s memoirs published in 1974, she writes:
“…the crops filled the granary and barns to overflowing. Papa called out from the granary [for me] to come to him. The two of us sat on the tongue of the lumber wagon, talking over the days of harvesting just completed, so grateful for the bountiful gifts of God.”
Mildred, or Aunt Mimi as we
called her, had graduated from the Lutheran Normal School the spring before,
intent on becoming a teacher.
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| Lutheran Normal School, Madison, Minnesota |
Her first choice was to attend St. Olaf College
in Northfield, Minnesota, but the family simply couldn’t afford it. So plans
had been put in place for her to attend Cedar Falls College in Iowa.
Sitting there in granary, Grandpa asked her if she would like to go to St. Olaf after all. "We can manage it with these crop returns." Mildred was elated, The beginning of the school year was almost upon them, and before she knew what was happening, she was on a train for Northfield.
Sitting there in granary, Grandpa asked her if she would like to go to St. Olaf after all. "We can manage it with these crop returns." Mildred was elated, The beginning of the school year was almost upon them, and before she knew what was happening, she was on a train for Northfield.
"In
my pocket was a personal checking account with a $300.00 deposit which would
see me through most of the first semester.”
Grandpa’s dream was
beginning to come true.
My mother, Charlotte Pauline Hovick,
was born a month later on October 9, 1925.
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| Charlotte Pauline Hovick |
Mildred, now a freshman at St. Olaf, excitedly came home for Charlotte's baptism. She wrote:
"Monday
and the inevitable return to college came with shocking reality. I cried. I
cried for hours. Papa took my bags in one hand and with his arm about me,
escorted me from the car to the waiting bus, determined as ever to see his
dream for my education fulfilled. I cried all the way home to Northfield,
suffering the very worst spell of homesickness I ever experienced.”
“In June
1929, dressed in the traditional black graduation robe with the tassel switched
to the other side of my cap and holding my sheepskin diploma in my hand,
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| Mildred Hovick's St. Olaf College Diploma |
"I felt
an arm around me.
That winter, Charles and
Pauline made the momentous decision to leave Madison and move the
family to Northfield. The reasons were two-fold. Pauline suffered from
pernicious anemia, and living and working on the farm was growing increasingly
difficult for her. Secondly, this would be a major step forward in realizing
their dream of giving their daughters a fine education. Living in Northfield
would mean that they wouldn’t have to pay room and board, making an expensive
St. Olaf education a bit more affordable.
In February of 1926, they sold
much of what they had. An auction was held on February 17, 1926 to sell what appears
to be everything on the farm - livestock, machinery, and household goods.
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| Chas. T. Hovick Farm Auction Notice Click to enlarge |
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| 652 St. Olaf Avenue, Northfield, Minnesota Charlotte Hovick in buggy |
A few years later, as he lay dying of cancer in 1948, he told his girls, “I don’t leave
you with an inheritance of money or property, but you have the best of all – an
education, which has prepared you for life on your own.”
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