"The Other Swedes"
Honoring Them and Remembering Them
~ The Lindsborg Swedes, Their Neighbors & Friends
Honoring Them and Remembering Them
~ The Lindsborg Swedes, Their Neighbors & Friends
William Holwerda, M.D.
~ Remembering him as "Doc Bill," a city father and loving citizen
~ Accounts by Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg
~ Remembering him as "Doc Bill," a city father and loving citizen
~ Accounts by Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg
William Holwerda, M.D.
- The Dutchman -
1901-1964
- The Dutchman -
1901-1964
Dr. William Holwerda is remembered by Bethany College Biology Professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom who in his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas /\ writes: "While he continued as a physician in his community, his practice grew, and so did his stature and contribution to community affairs. He was instrumental in founding Lindsborg's fall festival, Svensk Hyllningsfest. People still recount that
it took a Dutchman to awaken the Swedes to the realization of their great heritage of customs and traditions." *
Dr. Lungstrom recounts: "Dr. Holwerda was dedicated to civic duty and involvement in community affairs. He was willing to serve on committees and helped with projects in church." * He continues:
"Dr. Holwerda was
an Augustana Lutheran Christian,
a charter member and past president of the Lindsborg Rotary Club,
a charter member of the Community Coordinating Council of which he was the founder,
a charter member of the Lindsborg Rod and Gun Club,
a Vice President of the Messiah Lutheran Church Council,
an honorary member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity at Bethany College,
a member of the Kansas Centennial Commission in 1961, appointed by Governor George Docking.
He served
on
the staffs of
Saint John’s Hospital, Salina, Kansas;
McPherson County Hospital, McPherson, Kansas;
and was one of the
leaders in building the Lindsborg Community Hospital.
He served
as Bethany College’s physician for more than 20 years;
was secretary of the McPherson County Medical Society;
was local physician for Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific Railroad employees.
He always tried
to live and practice the values imparted with his childhood heritage,
which were taught in his parents' home,
to work humbly in deep respect and a devoted belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
He felt
a duty to his country to serve during World War II,
but was turned down due to the shortage of doctors in McPherson County,
so in addition to serving his community,
he also ministered to residents in Camp Phillips and nearby small towns." *
an Augustana Lutheran Christian,
a charter member and past president of the Lindsborg Rotary Club,
a charter member of the Community Coordinating Council of which he was the founder,
a charter member of the Lindsborg Rod and Gun Club,
a Vice President of the Messiah Lutheran Church Council,
an honorary member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity at Bethany College,
a member of the Kansas Centennial Commission in 1961, appointed by Governor George Docking.
He served
on
the staffs of
Saint John’s Hospital, Salina, Kansas;
McPherson County Hospital, McPherson, Kansas;
and was one of the
leaders in building the Lindsborg Community Hospital.
He served
as Bethany College’s physician for more than 20 years;
was secretary of the McPherson County Medical Society;
was local physician for Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific Railroad employees.
He always tried
to live and practice the values imparted with his childhood heritage,
which were taught in his parents' home,
to work humbly in deep respect and a devoted belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
He felt
a duty to his country to serve during World War II,
but was turned down due to the shortage of doctors in McPherson County,
so in addition to serving his community,
he also ministered to residents in Camp Phillips and nearby small towns." *
Dr. Lungstrom writes: "Leon Lungstrom remembers one event which happened about 1932, which impressed him with the professional dedication of Dr. Holwerda. One evening Doris Anderson, a girl from a neighboring farm family, came running breathlessly to the Lungstrom farmhouse more than 1 mile away for the purpose of using the telephone to call a physician. According to her story, her brother John was desperately ill and needed a doctor immediately. Leon’s father, after learning the details, called Dr. Holwerda and described the situation to the best of his knowledge. The seven miles of country road at that time leading out from Lindsborg to the Anderson home in the West Kentuck area was nearly bottomless from consistent recent rains. The doctor came as quickly as the terrible roads would permit him to travel. His car was required to plow through the mud the entire distance. This incident impress the entire Lungstrom family in the true unselfish professional dedication of this man." **
Dr. Holwerda's paternal grandfather, Jan Holwerda, from Friesland, Holland, worked as a farm laborer and married Jantji Schripsema. Two of their oldest children first immigrated to the United States in 1881. With their other five children they immigrated the following year and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here, Dr. Holwerda was born on February 17, 1901, to George Holwerda and Fenna Stadt Holwerda and attended schools and graduated from Calvin College in three years with a Bachelor of Science Degree, after which he began his studies in medicine at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and received the Doctor of Medicine Degree. He interned in several nearby Chicago area hospitals, one being in Oak Park at West Suburban Hospital where he met his wife-to-be, Violette Nelson, who was studying to be a registered nurse and was from Salina, Kansas, the town north of Lindsborg. Thus, began a 2 year courtship, followed by their marriage on March 22, 1930, in Salina, Kansas, and their return to Chicago for Dr. Holwerda to finish his surgical residency.
Violette's paternal grandparents, August and Lena Marie Nelson, were from the province of Småland in Sweden and immigrated to Chicago in 1897. They were seeking religious freedom like so many other Swedish citizens. After losing their home in the Chicago Fire of October 8, 1871, they moved to Salina, Kansas, where they were members of the Swedish Mission Church. Her maternal grandparents, Jon and Caroline Norling, around 1874 settled in the Smoky Valley near Lindsborg after immigrating to Chicago from Värmland, Sweden. (This was the former home also of Bethany Church and Lindsborg founder Pastor Olof Olsson who first settled in Lindsborg in 1869 with his group of Swedes.) Violette's father, Charles Nelson, adopted the trade of his father, August, who was a stone mason, and built many of the first buildings in Salina and in Lindsborg, especially the public schools, the Brunswick Hotel, and Presser Hall.
It was in November 1931 that Dr. Holwerda began his medical practice in Lindsborg with his wife Violette, now a registered nurse. Their arrival in Lindsborg was due to several insistent and persuasive Lindsborg citizens who convinced them to settle there, the year before when they were visiting.
Dr. Lungstrom writes: "They decided to move to Lindsborg and at first live with Mrs. Holwerda's grandmother, Mrs. Norling, and also with Levi and Hagar Norling, until they would find an apartment. Their first apartment was on the first floor of Oscar Erickson‘s home, where they remained until 1932. While living here, Dr. Holwerda's Model T Ford car was stolen while parked on the street one night. The police were called, but the car was never recovered. After Willis was born, they moved to a house on Normal Street. Having lived in rented houses for eight years, they moved to their own new brick house on North Washington Street. The brick work for the home was done by Mrs. Holwerda's father, C. A. Nelson, and her brother Harry. This home was sold in 1947 and they moved to a farm one and one-half miles northeast of Lindsborg. They felt that country living would be more desirable for the family. The 40 acre farm with a two-story house had been owned by John Gustafson. After purchasing this property, the family remodeled the house during the fall of 1947, which enabled the family to spend Christmas in the country." ***
Violette's paternal grandparents, August and Lena Marie Nelson, were from the province of Småland in Sweden and immigrated to Chicago in 1897. They were seeking religious freedom like so many other Swedish citizens. After losing their home in the Chicago Fire of October 8, 1871, they moved to Salina, Kansas, where they were members of the Swedish Mission Church. Her maternal grandparents, Jon and Caroline Norling, around 1874 settled in the Smoky Valley near Lindsborg after immigrating to Chicago from Värmland, Sweden. (This was the former home also of Bethany Church and Lindsborg founder Pastor Olof Olsson who first settled in Lindsborg in 1869 with his group of Swedes.) Violette's father, Charles Nelson, adopted the trade of his father, August, who was a stone mason, and built many of the first buildings in Salina and in Lindsborg, especially the public schools, the Brunswick Hotel, and Presser Hall.
It was in November 1931 that Dr. Holwerda began his medical practice in Lindsborg with his wife Violette, now a registered nurse. Their arrival in Lindsborg was due to several insistent and persuasive Lindsborg citizens who convinced them to settle there, the year before when they were visiting.
Dr. Lungstrom writes: "They decided to move to Lindsborg and at first live with Mrs. Holwerda's grandmother, Mrs. Norling, and also with Levi and Hagar Norling, until they would find an apartment. Their first apartment was on the first floor of Oscar Erickson‘s home, where they remained until 1932. While living here, Dr. Holwerda's Model T Ford car was stolen while parked on the street one night. The police were called, but the car was never recovered. After Willis was born, they moved to a house on Normal Street. Having lived in rented houses for eight years, they moved to their own new brick house on North Washington Street. The brick work for the home was done by Mrs. Holwerda's father, C. A. Nelson, and her brother Harry. This home was sold in 1947 and they moved to a farm one and one-half miles northeast of Lindsborg. They felt that country living would be more desirable for the family. The 40 acre farm with a two-story house had been owned by John Gustafson. After purchasing this property, the family remodeled the house during the fall of 1947, which enabled the family to spend Christmas in the country." ***
- The Rostad Estate of Kalmar, Sweden -
Source: Bing.com Images
The home the Holwerda's moved into was originally owned by retired Rev. Erland Carlsson, the fourth president of the Augustana Lutheran Synod (1881-1888) and one of its founders. He had the home built to reproduce, to a smaller degree, an estate known as Rostad in Kalmar, Sweden, where his daughters had attended a famous girls school for four years. Rev. Carlsson's home, that the Holwerda's had moved into, had gone through a few owners. So restoration and remodeling work was necessary to bring it back to its former grandeur.
Their rural lifestyle included the care of an orchard of fruit trees and horses, a Jersey cow and bantam chickens, for which a large barn was built. Riding horses, and activities for their two sons, Willis Kent and James Robert in 4-H, and a pony for their daughter Mary Jane became part of there country farming experience. In 1955, Dr. Holwerda and Violette celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with an open house in their lovely home. Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg wrote a wonderful short story on the home found in her 1967 book, Living in Lindsborg, And Other Possibilities. It is titled: "Rostad," She terms the home "an estate." It must have been just that, "an estate." So, I term it: "the Rostad Estate of Lindsborg."
As lovely as it was to be out in the country, on many occasions, it was not at all a practical location for Dr. Holwerda when receiving emergency calls from his patients, especially during thunderstorms and heavy snowstorms with impassable ice-laden and muddy country roads to negotiate. However, he most certainly would have persevered to meet his patients in their hours of need.
Courtesy of the Dr. Leon George Lungstrom Family to share selections of his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas" in SWEDES.
Their rural lifestyle included the care of an orchard of fruit trees and horses, a Jersey cow and bantam chickens, for which a large barn was built. Riding horses, and activities for their two sons, Willis Kent and James Robert in 4-H, and a pony for their daughter Mary Jane became part of there country farming experience. In 1955, Dr. Holwerda and Violette celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with an open house in their lovely home. Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg wrote a wonderful short story on the home found in her 1967 book, Living in Lindsborg, And Other Possibilities. It is titled: "Rostad," She terms the home "an estate." It must have been just that, "an estate." So, I term it: "the Rostad Estate of Lindsborg."
As lovely as it was to be out in the country, on many occasions, it was not at all a practical location for Dr. Holwerda when receiving emergency calls from his patients, especially during thunderstorms and heavy snowstorms with impassable ice-laden and muddy country roads to negotiate. However, he most certainly would have persevered to meet his patients in their hours of need.
Courtesy of the Dr. Leon George Lungstrom Family to share selections of his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas" in SWEDES.
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* * *
From Elizabeth Jaderborg was composed a most thoughtful and kind tribute to Dr. Holwerda that most all in Lindsborg and the Smoky Valley could certainly agree with. It must have first appeared in the Lindsborg News-Record soon after Dr. Holwerda's death on October 2, 1964. It became a short story titled, "A Tribute" found in her 1965 Lindsborg On Record. /\ /\
"A Tribute"
by
Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg
from her
1965
Lindsborg on Record
Pages 45-46
by
Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg
from her
1965
Lindsborg on Record
Pages 45-46
"A person could not easily count the number of professional men who have given the best of their years in service to this community. For a town that has been incorporated less than 90 years, we have been fortunate, indeed – and in deeds.
"The country is fast running out of men who will answer calls in the middle of the night and on days "off." The professional world is fast running out of professional men who will mark "PAID" across a thousand-dollar medical bill, and wish you a Merry Christmas!”
"Yet such a man was Dr. Williams G. Holwerda. He lived in a way that befitted his professional standing, but he was humble about it – never pretentious. He loved the open country, and never had enough time to enjoy it when the sun was the cheeriest and the air was just right for breathing and the riding horses were raring to go.
"He loved art and beauty – saw it in a nurse called "Violette." Together they surrounded themselves with beauty and love in their home and family. He loved to work with his hands on wood, furniture, electronics, plumbing and writing. Everything he did, he did well -- expertly. He loved good literature, partook of it, and passed it on. He loved to photograph that which he wanted especially to remember — and he did, in his dark room. Here he was called to the phone many times by anxious parents.
"Doc spent his whole professional life in Lindsborg. His first office was in a little house on N. 2nd Street. Violette was his first office nurse. His first case -- an ingrown toenail! It must have been painful for the patient, but Doc had a sense of humor, and the situation must have brought him down to earth from the dreams of what his future was to be!
"But his future was a fulfillment. He found satisfaction in unraveling the most complicated problems. One wonders how he could be patient with a colicky baby in a young mother's arms when there was a man at the hospital who had just had a farm tractor wheel roll over his abdomen. One wonders how he could go on with sniffles and shots after seeing a beautiful young woman with hardly a scratch, die from a fractured skull when she had hardly barely begun to live.
"Doc had more to give. He was told so, shortly before his unexpected death in the afternoon of October 2, 1964. He told us so in a message that was to have been printed in the Lindsborg News-Record while he was a patient at the K.U. Medical Center. He thanked us in that message. Ironically, we turn about and, along with Johnny Come Lately, say:
'Thank you, Dr. Bill, for helping bring a new generation into this world, for seeing them through the measles, the croup, the flu and appendicitis. Thank you for caring for and about the older generation, and thank you for the scoldings, the advice and the philosophy which you gave, and which, for the most part, we had sense enough to take.'
"He went so completely. But isn’t it astounding! He left so much of himself with us!"
"The country is fast running out of men who will answer calls in the middle of the night and on days "off." The professional world is fast running out of professional men who will mark "PAID" across a thousand-dollar medical bill, and wish you a Merry Christmas!”
"Yet such a man was Dr. Williams G. Holwerda. He lived in a way that befitted his professional standing, but he was humble about it – never pretentious. He loved the open country, and never had enough time to enjoy it when the sun was the cheeriest and the air was just right for breathing and the riding horses were raring to go.
"He loved art and beauty – saw it in a nurse called "Violette." Together they surrounded themselves with beauty and love in their home and family. He loved to work with his hands on wood, furniture, electronics, plumbing and writing. Everything he did, he did well -- expertly. He loved good literature, partook of it, and passed it on. He loved to photograph that which he wanted especially to remember — and he did, in his dark room. Here he was called to the phone many times by anxious parents.
"Doc spent his whole professional life in Lindsborg. His first office was in a little house on N. 2nd Street. Violette was his first office nurse. His first case -- an ingrown toenail! It must have been painful for the patient, but Doc had a sense of humor, and the situation must have brought him down to earth from the dreams of what his future was to be!
"But his future was a fulfillment. He found satisfaction in unraveling the most complicated problems. One wonders how he could be patient with a colicky baby in a young mother's arms when there was a man at the hospital who had just had a farm tractor wheel roll over his abdomen. One wonders how he could go on with sniffles and shots after seeing a beautiful young woman with hardly a scratch, die from a fractured skull when she had hardly barely begun to live.
"Doc had more to give. He was told so, shortly before his unexpected death in the afternoon of October 2, 1964. He told us so in a message that was to have been printed in the Lindsborg News-Record while he was a patient at the K.U. Medical Center. He thanked us in that message. Ironically, we turn about and, along with Johnny Come Lately, say:
'Thank you, Dr. Bill, for helping bring a new generation into this world, for seeing them through the measles, the croup, the flu and appendicitis. Thank you for caring for and about the older generation, and thank you for the scoldings, the advice and the philosophy which you gave, and which, for the most part, we had sense enough to take.'
"He went so completely. But isn’t it astounding! He left so much of himself with us!"
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* These shared selections of the late Mrs. Jaderborg's writings noted by the mentioned book have been shown to her family for approval as of 11-25-22.
Photograph of Dr. Holwerda is from 1965 "Lindsborg on Record" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, page 45.
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* These shared selections of the late Mrs. Jaderborg's writings noted by the mentioned book have been shown to her family for approval as of 11-25-22.
Photograph of Dr. Holwerda is from 1965 "Lindsborg on Record" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, page 45.
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130 North Second Street
The last location from where Dr. Holwerda, with his wife and nurse Violette, saw patients was on the first floor.
After his death in 1964, Mrs. Holwerda lived on the second floor of this lovely home.
(It was destroyed by fire not long after this photograph was taken circa 2010 or 2011.)
The last location from where Dr. Holwerda, with his wife and nurse Violette, saw patients was on the first floor.
After his death in 1964, Mrs. Holwerda lived on the second floor of this lovely home.
(It was destroyed by fire not long after this photograph was taken circa 2010 or 2011.)
Go HERE to Their 1941 "Svensk Hyllningsfest" and Dr. William Holwerda's role ~ Accounts by Dr. Leon Lungstrom,
Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, Dr. Holwerda, and Mr. Eric Lundstrom
Go HERE to Dr. William Holwerda ~ Remembering their family doctor with Messiah Lutheran Church tributes
~ An account by Dr. Leon Lungstrom
Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, Dr. Holwerda, and Mr. Eric Lundstrom
Go HERE to Dr. William Holwerda ~ Remembering their family doctor with Messiah Lutheran Church tributes
~ An account by Dr. Leon Lungstrom
* These shared selections on Dr. Holwerda have been shown to his granddaughter Mrs. Betty Nelson for approval as of 4-21-2021.
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"Let Us Remember Them"
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
"Let Us Remember Them"
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
