Lindholm Family History: Ross Lindholm

ROSS LINDHOLM

Taken from history of Reva Grace Jenkins Lindholm

Ross Lindholm was born on May 5, 1912 to Alma Eric and Agnes Smith Lindholm on a dry farm two miles north and about one and one half miles east of Iona, Idaho.

His father had homesteaded 80 acres on the northern slope of what is called Big Hill or Iona Hill. They had a small log cabin in a shallow spot of the farm, near the top of the hill and among a patch of serviceberry bushes. It was located near the top of the north end. That is where he was born. I suppose they lived there as long as it took to prove up on the homestead, then moved back to the valley farm.

Ross went to school at lona and later at Idaho Falls High School. He went as far as his sophomore year.

He was an avid horseman. He loved his horses, both work horses and saddle horses. He did a little bit of rodeo riding as a bareback rider. This, however, was just for recreation. He was by no means a champion, but did win a local rodeo once in a while.

There’s a story told that Dad knew his fishing holes so well that one fall he dropped his fly “wallet” and just didn’t pick up it. He ended up losing it over the winter. He mulled it over, over the winter. The next spring he went right back to the spot he’d dropped it.

As a young man, he did a lot of riding. He and other young men thought nothing of riding horseback to Swan Valley or Jackson Hole. He, Frank, Elmer and their father would trail cattle from Swan Valley or Star Valley to feed in the big corrals they had on the farm. Even after we were married, he would drive his feeder cattle to market rather than have them trucked.

He was a hard worker. He was usually up at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning to change the irrigation water. In the winter, he took a sleigh over 4 - 6 foot drifts to the Lincoln U&I Sugar Factory to get a load of beet pulp to bring home to feed the cattle. He would quite often have to run alongside the sleigh to keep warm, as the temperature was usually below zero.

His farm was always the best kept one in the Iona area.