Bent Holtsmark was a Norwegian agriculturalist and politician.

He was born in Lier

Lier, Norway

Lier is an affluent municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lier. The municipality of Lier was established on 1 January 1838...

, but moved to Asker

Asker

Asker is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Viken traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Asker. The municipality is a suburb of Oslo, the national capital...

 in 1849. He was a farmer at Tveter farm, and also owned the farms Berg, Vøien and Sem. He was decorated with the King Oscar II

Oscar II of Sweden

Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...

 Medal for his work in agriculture, and was also mayor of Asker from 1869 to 1875. He was an elector

Electoral college

An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...

 for the Conservative Party in the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1888

Norwegian parliamentary election, 1888

A parliamentary election was held in Norway in 1888. A third party, the Moderate Liberal Party had before this election split from the Liberal Party, which halved the strength of the former majority party. This led to the Conservative Party gaining the most MPs out of the three, thus being able to...

.

His sons Bernt Holtsmark

Bernt Holtsmark

Bernt Holtsmark was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Conservative Party and the Liberal Left Party. He was a four-term member of the Parliament of Norway, and served as Minister of Agriculture from 1910 to 1912...

 and Wilhelm Holtsmark established an agricultural college at Sem, today known as a manor which lent its name to the Declaration of Sem of the Bondevik's Second Cabinet. Bernt Holtsmark was also a Minister of Agriculture. A third son Torger Holtsmark

Torger Holtsmark

Torger Holtsmark was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Conservative Party.He was born at Tveter farm in Asker as a son of Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of Bernt and Wilhelm Holtsmark...

 moved back to Lier, and became mayor there. A fourth son Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark

Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark

Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark was a Norwegian educator, physicist and actuary.-Personal life:He was born in Asker as a son of farmer and mayor Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of Bernt, Torger and Wilhelm Holtsmark...

 became a physicist, and through him Bent was grandfather of Johan

Johan Peter Holtsmark

Johan Peter Holtsmark was a Norwegian physicist, who studied spectral line broadening and electron scattering. In 1929, while at the Norwegian Institute of Technology , Holtsmark established acoustics research laboratories, focusing on architectural acoustics and sound insulation...

, Anne

Anne Holtsmark

Anne Elisabeth Holtsmark was a Norwegian philologist.-Personal life:She was born in Kristiania, the second of five children of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark and Margrete Weisse , and grew up in Kristiania and Ås...

 and Karen Holtsmark

Karen Holtsmark

-Personal life:She was born in Ås as a daughter of educator and physicist Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark and his wife Margrete Weisse . She was a maternal granddaughter of philologist Johan Peter Weisse, and a paternal granddaughter of agriculturalist and politician Bent Holtsmark...

.