Edwin Olaf (E.O.) Hotter was born May 27, 1906, on a farmstead two miles west of Kathryn, North Dakota. He was the son of Christian and Anne Holter, and the youngest of 12 children. As a youngster, he attended Erickson Grade School near his farm home and also the grade school complex located on the campus of the then Valley City Normal School. He went to work at an early age as a farmhand and as a handyman. Later, as a young man, he "rode the rails" working at such jobs as cowboy, laundryman and lumberjack. He also worked for a time then in Canada as a laborer on the building of an expansion route of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. With over 50 years of service to his credit, he retired in 1971 as a bridge and building foreman with the Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads. During much of his railroad career, he was charged with the maintenance of the Hi-Line Bridge and was instrumental in the construction of the new Northern Pacific passenger depot north of Valley City. He also constructed the new Northern Pacific Freight Depot in Valley City. His work with the railroad took him as far west as Mandan, North Dakota, and as far east as Dilworth, Minnesota. On September 17, 1939, he was married to Lillian Irene Bergeson, a native of Lisbon, North Dakota. Their marriage took place in Moorhead, Minnesota They are the parents of a daughter, Jacqueline Holter Volta, and of a son, Roland L. Holter. E. O. Hotter is the son-in-law of Mrs. Mabel (and the late Albert) Bergeson of Valley City and formerly Lisbon, North Dakota.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 106