Ole T. Lommen Biography
The following biography was written by Olava Lommen Hammersland, certainly with the help of family records and the information that her parents relayed to her. Olava’s handwriting is completely without shaking, so I’m sure she wrote these at least 25 years ago. Excerpts from another document, recorded by Olava, are inserted where appropriate. (These entries were typed by A. Marie Hammersland Reyner in 1979).
Ole T. Lommen was the seventh child born to Thrond Lommen and Thora Olsdatter Orager Lommen. He was 7-1/2 years old when the family emigrated to America from Norway.
Father used to tell about those early days in Norway. He remembered how he and another little boy used to play with some stones in Norway, pretending that they were cows. Before he left Norway he went and hid those stones and he used to say that he thought he could still find them if he went back. But he never did go back.
Ole T. attended Luther College part of two years. He also attended Upper Iowa University at Fayette, Iowa and taught school both near Decorah and in the school near our Stavanger Stone Church. Later he went to Illinois and for a short time attended a school at Aurora, Illinois. One time I was in Cambridge, Iowa and there I met an old man by the name of Nelson who had gone to school with father in Aurora. He told me he remembered a teacher had said Ole Lommen was the best student he had ever had in Grammar.
Ole T. bought a farm four miles south of Ossian in 1870. He 1872 he was married to Barbra Ellestad who died in 1876.
In 1881 Ole T. Lommen was married to Anna Huglen (sometimes also used the name Kloster or Larson). In 1882 he was elected County Supervisor. For several years he also served as President of the Norwegia Mutual Fire Insurance Company. For many years he was secretary of our congregation and treasurer of our school district.
(added by Marie Reyner)
Ole T. Lommen was seriously injured in a runaway buggy accident in the fall of 1906. This accident made him an invalid for the rest of his life.
The Fowler Institute of Newark, Illinois was what he attended in 1869-70. His obituary from the Ossian Bee states: “Since his marriage in 1872, Mr. Lommen has lived on he same farm in Military Township, and under his able management it became one of the valuable properties of the township. He always took more than a passing interest in the progress and welfare of the county and in 1882 was elected county supervisor, serving in that capacity for three years. He served as president of the Norwegian Mutual Life Insurance Company, and held other various local offices, providing an able servant in all of these connections. Older people will also remember him as an auctioneer.”
The following ad appeared in a September 1887 Ossian Bee: “Ole T. Lommen and Ole Riveland have 100 tons of choice wild hay in Hancock County which they will deliver at Ossian for $9.00 per ton.” Olava said they went out and made it and hauled it back by rail to help out during a drought.