My great-granddad Charles Holst was
one of 3 great-grandparents who were alive when I was born, and one of 2 I can
actually remember, although the memory is fuzzy. Grandpa Charlie (so-called by my aunt and
uncles to differentiate him from the other grandparents) was born in
Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California, on 18 October 1884, to Peter Holst, who
was 37, and Caroline (Thomsen) Holst, who was 41.
Charlie had an older sister, Annie, born in 1875, an older
sister Mary born in 1881. Another son,
named Peter, was stillborn a year before Charlie was born. Reportedly, there was another brother,
George, who was born in 1885, but I have found no records backing up his
existence.
The Holsts did not live in town, but instead on a ranch on
Dry Creek Road, about 4 miles from Healdsburg proper, back in the hills. Charlie’s father had a vineyard and a
winery; the winery remained in production until Prohibition.
Grandpa Charlie’s parents were ethnically Danish, having
both been born in the Duchy of Slesvig near Flensburg – an area which is now in
Germany, and, in fact, became part of Bismarck’s Prussian Empire before they
immigrated to the United States.
There is little I know about my great-grandfather. I don’t know if he spoke Danish in addition
to English. I don’t know where he went
to school, if he went to school at all – presumably there was a local school in
the Healdsburg area. I don’t know how he
met the woman he would marry, Hazel Hannah Englehart, but possibly it was
through her father, who reportedly built (or painted?) the Holst farm house, as
he was a painter and carpenter.
In any case, I had always been told that Charlie and Hazel
married in January 1908, in Marin County, just south of Petaluma. But when I ordered a copy of their marriage
record, I discovered they married on 28 January 1909. Their firstborn, a son named Charles (Junior)
and called “Sonny”, was born just 6 months later on 2 August 1909.
Their next child was my grandmother, Elizabeth, born in June
1914. Another son, William, was born in
1921, and then a stillborn baby girl in 1928.
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| My great-granddad with his horse Spirit, circa 1940 |
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| Charlie Holst with Charlie Moisan, his wife's brother-in-law |
With Prohibition arriving in 1920, Charlie and his father
ripped out all the vineyards they were cultivating, and starting growing plum
trees. Charlie’s father, a
viticulturist, died before the repeal of Prohibition, as did his mother. Charlie remained on the land, and made a
living off the land until he died in 1968.
His children grew up and moved away, one serving in World
War II and another having a family in Sonoma County, then divorcing his wife,
and later moving to Oregon with his second wife.
Their land off Dry Creek Road was where we visited when I
was a four year old. I remember the pink
house they lived in, the sunshine, the hills which seemed to hug the house they
were so close. I remember going outside,
and seeing my great-grandpa in the vegetable garden they had alongside the
house, wearing denim overalls. Although
my mom tells me both my great-grandparents saw me as a baby, before we moved to
Florida, that is my only memory of my great-granddad. He died 2 years later in April 1968, and is
buried in Oak Mound Cemetery in Healdsburg.
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| Hazel, Grace, Bill (with dog), Charlie, Charlie Jr in 1961 |
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| Grandpa Charlie's death certificate |
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