Ole C. Solberg Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 548-551

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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OLE C. SOLBERG. The subject of this personal narration is one of the 
successful and progressive farmers of Jerauld county and is also one of 
its honored pioneers and representative citizens. He has made his 
special field of industry a success, and is highly esteemed and 
respected by those who know him best. He is engaged in general farming 
and its usual concomitant, stock-raising, on his homestead, which is on 
section 1, Viola township. 

Mr. Solberg was born in Norway in 1854, and in 1866 came with his 
parents to America, locating in Crawford county, Wisconsin, where the 
father engaged in farming. There our subject grew to manhood and 
continued to make his home until twenty-four years of age. He attended 
the public schools of his native land and Norwegian schools in this 
country, but never an English school. From early childhood it was 
always his intention to become a farmer, and on leaving ho~ne in 1878 
he went to Iowa, where he worked as a farm hand for two years. The 
spring of 1881 saw him and his two brothers en route for Jerauld 
county, South Dakota, in a covered wagon, making the journey in that 
way from Iowa to their future home on section 1, Viola township. They 
located there long before the county was organized, and the country for 
miles around was an unbroken prairie, not a building being in sight 
from our subject's home. A sod house 6 x 8 feet was constructed, and in 
the fall of 1881 sheds were built for his stock, which consisted of one 
horse and two colts. Mr. Solberg had just enough money to file his 
claim, and at first encountered many hardships in his attempt to 
convert the wild prairie land unto a rich and productive farm. For a 
few years he and his brothers worked together, but their first crop was 
destroyed by a prairie fire, leaving them only a little sod corn. Again 
in 1889 he lost a part of his barn in the same way. In early days all 
supplies had to be hauled from Mitchell, where corn was sold at 
seventy-five and ninety-five cents per bushel. Hay was the fuel used by 
the early settlers. 

As Mr. Solberg's crops were good he soon prospered in his new home, and 
now owns four hundred and eighty acres of valuable land, of which about 
three hundred acres are now under excellent cultivation. About half of 
the place is now fenced, and since 1890 he has had wood to burn from 
the grove he set out. He has a large house, a good well and windmill, 
barn, granary, corn, ribs, etc., in fact, has one of the best improved 
farms of the community. 

In 1884 Mr. Solberg led to the marriage altar Miss Olena Starky, a 
native of Iowa, whose parents were born in Norway and were farming 
people. Five children bless this union. Religiously our subject and his 
wife are both members of the Lutheran church, and politically he is 
identified with the Populist party. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Solberg 
appear on another page. He has served as school treasurer for the past 
four years and has two years more to serve, and as township supervisor 
for four years. He was reelected to the latter office in 1899, and is 
the present incumbent. His official duties have always been discharged 
in a prompt and able manner, winning the commendation of all concerned. 
As an agriculturist he has met with marked success, and in 1891 raised 
four thousand bushels of wheat, three thousand bushels of oats and two 
thousand five hundred bushels of corn; and in 1898 one thousand six 
hundred bushels of wheat, four hundred bushels of rye, eight hundred 
bushels of oats and three thousand four hundred bushels of corn.