Rasmus Erdahl was granted the deed for the original Erdahl homestead of 160 acres in the Rolling Forks township on June 1st, 1874. He was born in Poostryn, Norway in 1825 and immigrated to America sometime after 1858; the same year his father passed away and sold their farm. The first indication of his presence in Pope county is in 1867 when he acquired 20 acres of land. He was married to Anne Hjelle and had seven children - Betsy(1869), Rasmus Johannes - John(1870), Lars - Louis(1872), Anne(1874), Nils(1876), Andrine(1877) and Reinert(1880).

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In October of 1873, Rasmus became an American citizen, and in 1874 homesteaded the original 160 acres in Section 10 of Rolling Forks township. He purchased an additional 40 acres in 1896. Their children began leaving the Glenwood area taking advantage of land opportunities in North Dakota and Canada. Anne Hjelle Erdahl continued to operate the farm after her husband’s death in February 1900. 

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Reinert R. (Raynard or R.R.), Rasmus’ youngest son continued farming the homestead and bought the farm in1909. He married Anna Arnestad on November 19, 1908 at Rolling Forks Church. Raynard built the farmhouse in 1914. They lived on the homestead with their seven children - Rudolph(1909), Thelma(1913), Floyd(1914), Kenneth(1916), Ragna(1919), Alton(1923), and Marvin(1925).

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R.R. also added another 40 acres in 1913, and a small wooded lot in 1918. He also built the farmhouse, and was a local politician. R.R. died on January 14, 1937 at the age of 56. As the generation before him, his widow maintained the operation of the farm with the help of her children until her death in 1942.

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Their son, Kenneth, married Marlys Goulson of Benson on February 8th, 1944, and they bought the farm in the fall of 1946. They had four children Doug(1944), Karen(1946), Roger(1948) and Chloe(1953). While Kenneth farmed major changes included plumbing and electricity. Farming with horses gave way to diesel tractors, and milking by hand transitioned to milk machines and bulk tanks. Kenneth passed away in September of 1980. As generations before, widow Marlys managed the farm with the help of her children. The youngest daughter, Chloe, was married to Paul Holtberg in 1978 on the front porch of the farmhouse.

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Kenneth and Marlys’ son, Doug, helped farm the land from 1980-1993. Doug married Barb Berg of Starbuck in 1967, and had two children - Mark(1970) and Marcia(1973). Doug passed away in 1993. For many years the farm was put into a CRP program. Marylys lived on the farm until 1996, then moved to a house in Glenwood.

 

Mark married Kimberly Picht of Holloway in 1996, they have two children - Haley(1998) and Madison (2002). They briefly lived in the farmhouse after they were married, but the winter of ‘96 proved to be quite challenging. Maryls passed away in 2011. Mark and Kim purchased the farm in 2012. The first thing they did was replace the roof on the farmhouse unsure of what to do with the house. It sat empty for many years and was mainly used as a hunting shack for the relatives. Tucker Holtberg, Chloe and Paul’s youngest son, asked to also get married on the front porch of the farmhouse as his parents did. Thus began the first of the farmhouse remodeling. The new porch was added in July of 2019. During this time, the interior of the home was stripped of plaster and lathe, rewired and insulated properly. Most of the remodel was done during the pandemic of 2019-2020.

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Today our family is pleased to share this beautiful farmhouse as a short term rental; although, we continue to use it often for family gatherings and holidays.