Person:Seibert Hookland (1)

[marta_nordbo.ged]

He was one of the first professors at NMSU, where the author went to school.

From Charles F. Coan [1925]. A History of New Mexico. American Historical Society, New York:

The individual activities and interest of Seibert S. Hookland reflect in a notable measure the progress of farming, horticulture and kindred industries in Dona Ana County from an organized point of view. Mr. Hookland has been one of the real leaders of the southern part of the state in creating farmers cooperative associations.

Mr. Hookland, who was classically educated and for a number of years was a teacher before coming to New Mexico, was born near Newburg, in Fillmore County, Minnesota, December 29, 1864, and is of Norwegian parentage. His father was Sigbjorn Haukland, but the teacher of the district school where Seibert S. Haukland attended changed the family name to Hookland. the father was a farmer and carpenter, and was a Union soldier of the civil war from Minnesota. He was a pioneer in that state, and died in Northfield when almost eighty years of age. He married in Minnesota Margit Haugan, who passed away in January, 1924, when almost ninety years of age. They had nine children, seven reaching mature years, Seibert S. being the only son.

Seibert S. Hookland spent his early life on the farm, and his own efforts and ambition brought him liberal educational advantages. He was graduated in 1887 from the Minnesota State Normal School at Winona, then took special courses at the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and for five years was a teacher in Caton College in Minneapolis. His plans at that time were to enter the Lutheran ministry, and for two years he was a student in the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Chicago. Failure of his health caused him to abandon the ministerial profession, and for some years he was a business educator, spending five years with the Banks Business College at Philadelphia and for a year and a half was dean of the Department of Commerce of Highland Park College at Des Moines, Iowa.

From Des Moines Mr. Hookland came to New Mexico in 1907, and for about a year made his temporary residence at Albuquerque, and prospected over the territory while recuperating and preparing for his future line of usefulness. It was in 1909 that he moved into Dona Ana County, purchasing a tract of alfalfa land, and from the first taking up fruit development. In that year he set out a pear orchard, and has continued his plantings until this fruit aggregates eighteen acres. He also set out an orchard of Jonathan apples, and taking all the years together, has made a success of fruit growing, the best years in his experience being 1918-19-20-21.

It was his effort to market his fruits to the best advantage that brought Mr. Hookland prominently into connection with co-operative associations. Dona Ana County has probably done more than any other county of the Southwest to develop such associations and organize bodies to solve the problems of the practical farmer, and Mr. Hookland has been identified with probably every important organization of different kinds during the past fifteen years. He became a charter member of the first such association, the Mesilla Valley Produce Exchange, and served on its board of directors. He was also a charter member, director and chairman of the executive committee of the Mesilla Valley Fruit Association, and became its president and manager, so serving until the association was merge into the Farm Bureau Marketing Association.

Other kindred bodies with which Mr. Hookland was identified were the Mesilla Sweet Potato Growers' Association, of which he was a charter member and director, and was made president and manager in the second year of its existence; the Mesilla Valley Poultry Association, which was organized by the county agent under the direction of the late H. H. Brook and with George M. Clark a prominent factor in its affairs. The Mesilla Cabbage Growers marketed their products without any special organization through Crombie and Company of El Paso. All of these different bodies found a centralized point of contact in the Dona Ana County Farm Bureau, of which Mr. Hookland was a charter member, and was employed as county sales agent for shaping up marketing agencies. In this capacity he consolidate the various bodies above mentioned under a new corporation known as the Farm Bureau Marketing Association. For the first two years he served as its president. After resigning as president he remained chairman of its executive committee.

Another important body in this district organized with the active assistance of Mr. Hookland as Farm Bureau Sales Agent, was the Elephant Butte Alfalfa Association which has its central office in El Paso, Texas, and extends its operations throughout the Elephant Butte Irrigation Project, including Dona Ana County, New Mexico, El Paso County, Texas, and adjacent alfalfa growing districts.

During his residence in Dona Ana County Mr. Hookland was identified with the State College at Mesilla Park as professor of commerce until he was made manager and sales agent of the Dona Ana County Farm Bureau. In the interests of farming in the valley, he helped establish "Organized Farming," a periodical issued once a month and devoted to the practice of farming. This was finally consolidated with the Rio Grande Republic, under the name of the Rio Grande Farmer, which took over the editorial staff of the "Organized Farming." Mr. Hookland becoming business manager and editor of the first paper, and is a member of the staff of the Rio Grande Farmer.

Mr. Hookland was married first in 1891 to Caroline Storlie, of Minnesota. She died February 29, 1896, leaving one daughter, Mildred Beatrice, born in Minneapolis June 11 1893, who studied at the New Mexico State College, later became a graduate nurse, finishing her education in Chicago, married Hugh Melver Alison, son of a wealthy plantation owner in Louisiana, and resides, with her twin sons, in Albuquerque, where in 1922, her husband paid the (unintelligible). Hookland married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May, 1905, Miss Olga Alexandra Martin. Mrs. Hookland has a special department of her own on the Hookland ranch, where she specializes in the growing of White Leghorn chickens for commercial purposes, being in the poultry business which she grows American Beauty roses for pleasure. She was born in Gottenberg, Sweden, in 1883. Her father's name was Carl Eric Roland Martin, and her mother's maiden name Hannah Elizabeth Johnson. Her father was a descendant of French Huguenots who left France at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, three brothers seeking refuge in Scandinavian countries. At that time they spelled the name "de Marteng." Mrs. Hookland is related to the great botanist and floral classifier, Carl von Linnae, a native of Sweden, the father of classification, whose name appears in every work on botany and every classification of plants. She is the namesake of Olga Alexandra, the ill-fated Russian Czarina, as an eleventh hour compromise by her parents. It had been agreed that she should be named after a flower, her mother's choice being Marguerite (a small daisy), and her father's, Linnaea (a little blue flower named after Linnae). As the ceremony was about to be performed, news arrived that the father's uncle who had been sent on an embassy, had just been received at the Russian Court, and had been presented to the Czarina, whereupon both parents yielded their contentions and named the child Olga Alexandra in honor of the occasion. Mrs. Hookland was four years of age when brought to the United States by her parents. Her father was an architectural and mechanical draftsman in Philadelphia, where he died in 1916, leaving seven children. Mrs. Hookland attended high school in Philadelphia and Bank's College where she taught five years. She subsequently became a member of the faculty at Highland Park College, Des Moines, Iowa.

The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hookland is Norman Seibert, born in Des Moines, Iowa, October 26, 1906, who is a graduate of the Las Cruces High School, attended the New Mexico State College, and is now a student in McMurray College of Abilene, Texas.

1. ↑ marta nordbo.ged.

   Date of Import: 12 Sep 2005

2. ↑ marta nordbo.ged.

   Date of Import: 12 Sep 2005

3. ↑ marta nordbo.ged.

   Date of Import: 12 Sep 2005

4. ↑ marta nordbo.ged.

   Date of Import: 12 Sep 2005