PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD OF OKLAHOMA

GRANVILLE HOLLENBECK

The ancestry of the Hollenbeck family is German, and the first representatives in America took up their residence in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary war. They were industrious people, and impressed their attainments upon the communities in which they lived. This later descendant, Granville Hollenbeck, was born in Chautauqua county, N.Y., and is a son of Ashley Holllenbeck, who was born and reared there, and who came west to Delaware county, Iowa, in 1859, engaging in farm pursuits. In 1900 he moved to Oklahoma and settled on the northwest quarter of section 21, adjoining the claim of his son. Here he conducts a model farm and is living a prosperous life. The farm in Iowa which was the object of his care for so many years sold for $9,000.

The mother of Granville Hollenbeck was Elizabeth [CLARK] Hollenbeck, of New York, and she became the mother of seven children, six of whom are living. Granville, being the oldest. The others are: Mrs. Jennie FARWELL; Delsie, who is married to Earl DERBY, and lives in Oklahoma; William, in Iowa; Eddie, who is with his father, and Blanche, wife of Joseph RYAN. The grandfather, Daniel Hollenbeck, was born and reared in New York state, and settled in Chautauqua county when it was a dense timber forest. His determination recognized no obstacles, and he succeeded in clearing several hundred acres and in developing a fine farm on the clearance. He died while still in middle life, and with unimpaired faculties.

Granville Hollenbeck passed about the same kind of life that is known to most country-reared boys. His opportunities included a fair education at the district schools. In 1877 he started out for himself and in Ottawa county, Kans., bought school land, which he improved, and upon which he lived, engaging in general farming and stock-raising. In the fall of 1890 he sought to better his condition in the unimproved county in Oklahoma, and therefore bought the farm in Sherman township, Kingfisher county upon which he has since lived, and which at the time of purchase had but nine acres broken. As a result of his immediate enterprise, there was a good crop of wheat the first year, and there has been a corresponding general increase ever since. At the present time one hundred and ten acres are under cultivation, and the balance is used for pasturing a herd of fifty cattle of excellent breed. Interested also in raising horses, Mr. Hollenbeck makes a specialty of standard-bred Habletonians and other equally good breeds. The farm has an excellent orchard with about a hundred apple trees and other kinds of fruit; also small fruits are grown in abundance. The houses and barns are of good construction, and the place is made attractive by numerous shade trees. An important item, also is the excellent water facilities. Up to 1899 the farm had yielded thirteen thousand eight hundred bushels of wheat, Mr. Hollenbeck's assistants being six horses and a boy.

Mrs. Hollenbeck was formerly Annie BLANCHARD, and her marriage to Mr. Hollenbeck occurred in 1875. There are no children of the union. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and contribute generously towards its support. In politics Mr. Hollenbeck is identified with the Republican party. He is a broad-minded, progressive man, and a credit to the community in which his lot is cast.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Oklahoma (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901), 276.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Mary Charles Dodd Hull, March 2000.