Haugen Sonderland Stories and Clippings
This is Linda Haugen Holtan’s Family, related to the Thorvilsons
Homesteading in 1863
A little brown haired, thirteen-year old girl was playing with her friend during recess at the old country schoolhouse. They watched a fairly tall young man walking by on the dirt road.
“That’s Andreas Haugen, the newcomer,” one of the children remarked. Emma Turine Jørgenson took note and a thought passed through her mind; “I think I’d like him.” (Emma is Mrs. Andrew K. Haugen)
At that time, she didn’t know that she would wait twenty years before her Andreas asked her to be his bride. Emma was a second generation American Norwegian. Her father, Halvor Jørgenson, was born in Treungen in Norway. His father Jørgen Haugen was a Klokker, a grade school teacher and a farmer on the Sonderland farm. His wife was Bergit Heimdahl who grew up in the same surroundings as her husband. Three of their nine children died when the Black Death (actually the children’s epidemic, 1840-1849) swept Norway. Two girls and four boys lived to reach America.
Marie and Turi married in this country. Ole was a farmer, Torkel and Tarjai were teachers and klokkers in Norway but they farmed in America. Tarjai is supposed to have published a book in Norway but there is no evidence of it today.
Halvor Jørgenson (1836-1917) came to America with the rest of the family in the 1850’s. The trick was made on the “Rea” which was sunk on the next trip across the Atlantic. They entered the St. Laurence River and landed at Quebec after eleven weeks at sea. On board they provided their own food and cooked in shifts. Salt fish and flatbrød were staples. Marie Sonderland’s husband’s nephew was born on the sea. They named him Kjetil Rea!
Halvor travelled down the Great Lakes and worked east of the Mississippi doing odd jobs. In Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin, he worked in a logging camp -In 1862, he registered for the army of the North but was rejected. He had flat feet! The same week he started walking and travelled this way from McGregor, Iowa, to Bristol in Worth County, Iowa. In 1863, he bought homestead rights from a Mrs. Clark for a hundred and sixty acres of woodland south of Lake Mills. For this land that had only a dugout he paid thirty dollars. Halvor lived in the dugout until he completed a log cabin with a bedroom, pantry and kitchen. This was made with the help of distant neighbors and was no more than six feet high. Holes bored in the logs and fitted with stay pins served to support clapboards for the “China closet.” Curtains were lacking and the chairs and table were represented by the log stools and benches. Cooking was done at a fireplace with an iron teakettle, a long-handled skillet, a copper-bottomed coffee pot and a large iron kettle for cooking utensils. Bread was baked in a skillet which was heated on the live coals with more hot coals heaped on the iron lid. All of the meat came from the woods. A gun rack was formed by two hooks fashioned from poles of small trees. There rested the gun and powder-horn. Deer, wolves, wild fowl and small fowl were plentiful. Kerosene lamps had not been invented but a loosely twisted cotton rag was placed in a dish and lard was melted over the rag until only a small top of it projected from the top. In the winter season the fire place was the source of light and heat.
In about 1869, Halvor married Aslaug Aakri. Her parents, Gulbrand Aakri, a farmer, and Aasild Dyraas were from Nissedal. They had eight children: Steiner, Halvor, Brynulf, Aslak, Ola, Ole, Turi and Aslaug. Aslaug was born in 1838 (died in 1926.) and was sent to America in about 1867 by way of Quebec also. Her sister, Turi, (Phillip Gangsie’s grandmother) was living in Worth County, Iowa. Aslaug’s parents made her leave Norway with her brother, Ole, to seek their fortune in America. There was no church in the territory but a Rev, Torgeson came from Northwood to marry them in her sister Turi’s home. The ceremony was held after he had conducted the funeral services for Aslaug’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Ole Aakri. Aslaug became an asset to the neighborhood. She was the county’s nurse and mid-wife- she was still delivering babies in 1924 after several doctors had made Lake Mills their place of practice.
Halvor had grubbed trees and cleared enough territory at that time to have a large patch of potatoes and a garden. He owned a pig and Aslaug brought another pig for dowry.
Life was less lonely with a wife but it still was hard.
The county was still without roads, bridges, and guideposts. All the supplies had to be gotten at McGregor on the banks of the Mississippi. Halvor made the trip yearly. One summer he was stopped by a band of robbers. When they found him without valuables or money in his possession, they unloaded his oxcart of grain to irritate him. These yearly trips to McGregor became a joy to the children. Pa always brought figured calico material, store food and a special gift for each daughter. One year he bought gold ring bands for a few dollars. In the exchange store, these are about the only possessions left from the earliest pioneer days. The rest of the clothing was made by Aslaug and her daughters. They carded, spun and sewed the cloth into
woolen dresses.
Lake Mills at this time was known as Slaunchville. A grist mill was started in 1864. Flour was produced in 1865. In 1866 they opened a general store. This made traveling shorter, but so much of it had to be done by boat. Greely Lake extended from the farm three miles out to the main street of Slaunchville. The grist mill was located on one end of this lake. Greely was drained in an attempt to drain neighboring body of water, Rice Lake, in the early 1900’s to make its bed into corn fields. Rice Lake still is part of the community today. Lake Mills derived its name from Greely Lake and the mill when it was incorporated in 1880. By this time, it had its first railroad and in a few years had a lumber company, creamery, hotel, canning factory, telephone system and cigar factory. There was even a Chinese laundry operated by Qong Hine and Fong You.
Halvor built a new house before 1900. It was more refined and modern than the
log house. It had store chairs, table, beds and even a stove. This house only (page missing?)
The Story of the Cyclone (Tornado) in 1907
The cows in the pasture quit eating and pressed themselves together, raised their heads in the air and snorted. (Description of cyclone partly left out from newspaper account. )
When the cyclone reached Halvor Sonderland’s large, beautiful oak forest, it had reached Its height and it nearly leveled it. Halvor Sonderland (or Halvor Jorgenson. They used the names interchangeably) was at home, also some of the children. Mrs. Sonderland was visiting at her sister, Mrs. Thorvilson s (Paul Holtan’s great grandmother) place when this happened. The children had seen the cyclone, so they ran to their father to tell him and wanted him to run to the cellar. Halvor did not think there was any hurry. He preferred to stay and watch the procedure, The children had to insist that he come with them and unwillingly followed them. They had barely made it to the cellar, when the house went and they were sitting under the open sky. The family escaped injury, but much valuable property was lost. There was not a single board left of the house. The loss was great, but Halvor Sonderland was a man of initiative and also a man of means, who soon had a new house on the old foundation. However, the loss of the beautiful oak forest could not be replaced.
Halvor Jørgenson Sonderland enforced his laws for moral living on the household. Liquor brought from town was never seen but the homemade beer and wine from the wild grapes was a frequent treat. Playing cards was taboo. Emma had been at a neighbor house playing one day and had found a queen of hearts. She had decided to keep this pretty picture and felt that Halvor’s hymnbook was the safest place for it. The next Sunday the family sat by the usual place in church–the front row. Halvor opened his book to sing and a queen of hearts fluttered to the floor beside him. He calmly picked it up and put it in his pocket. Emma realized then that something wasn’t quite right about the incident and expected a questioning when she came home. She never did hear about it nor did she ever see her pretty lady again.
Emma grew into a rather pretty young lady. She loved to go to parties and have a good time. During her stay at home between her term in high school and her marriage she was the life of the party. John O. and Emma led most of the neighborhood dances. She and the boys in the community would go into Lake Mills to have their pictures taken or Hilda T. would come to visit and talk. Life was not all a party though- she learned the arts of housewifery and farming as she matured into womanhood.
Another Family Comes To Iowa
Andreas Haugen set out for America in 1896. His grandfather, Aslak Mogan, was born in Kviteseid, Telemark in 1812. He was a full-time army officer training troops for the Norse conscription program. For short periods between training programs, he was a log seller for lumber firms.
He married Sigrid Olson of Telemark, and also, and had one son, Ole, a farmer in America. He lived to be eighty-five and was still able to stand on his head the year he died. There were five daughters: Gunhild married Ole Juveland–they settled in Winnebago County, Iowa. Sigrid, Tro and Bergit traveled to America but they returned to their homeland. The other daughter, Juri, was born in 1842 and married Knute Mogen.
Knute’s father, Olaf Olson, was a carpenter but was crippled in an occupational accident and died early. Olaf married Anne Syftestad from Kviteseid, Telemark, too. Knute Mogan was a carpenter and furniture and cabinet maker in Norway. Cabinets were not the chief product; in the winter months as skis were made by the score. He was awarded a prize for design and efficiency at a ski meet in Kristiania. Young Andreas made many a ski in the winter months in Norway.
In 1896, Knute and Juri started for America. With them came Knute, Andreas and Oscar and the daughters, Sigrid, Gunhild, and Anne. They were going to join the other members of the family already in America. Ole, Aslak and Talev immigrated a few years earlier to escape the compulsory military training as their other brothers were now doing.
Transportation on the boat was a little different from the Halvor Jorgenson trip. It took only five weeks and food was served on board. They were on the St. Paul of the Cunard Lines which came to South Hampton, England, and landed at Ellis, Island, New York, The whole family took the train to Wesley, Iowa.
Andreas and Knute were carpenters in Wesley and after one year, they came to Lake Mills and bought forty acres of land for twelve hundred dollars and one hundred and twenty acres for three hundred dollars. Knute and his wife lived on the farm until their death.
They built the house which is standing on the farm today. It had only one room at first but many additions were made.
Their education lasted long enough to learn the language and become naturalized. Oscar attended high school and graduated in 1906. Andreas and Talev were carpenters. Ole married Mulla Thorvildson and moved to North Dakota to farm and Oscar married Charlotte ?? He was a banker in Williston, North Dakota, then was associated with a real estate firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until his death in 1950. The girls all married Lake Mills farmers; Anne, Martin Fjelstad; Sigrid, Knute Ness; and Gunhild, Sever Stensrude,
Knute, Talev and Andreas started farming together and became pioneers in the breeding of purebred cattle. The triumvirate ended when Andreas left when he married. Knute and Talev became the Haugen Brothers. Talev was quite interesting. He was more aggressive than his brother and was one of the organizers of. many co-op enterprises in Lake Mills. An avid reader, he had a library that included Tolstoi, Carlyle, modern novelists and Ingersoll. He possessed the gift of telling stories. When they were tales from daily living they were often colored by exaggeration. Twenty cows would be jumping over a sixteen-foot fence instead of eight cows jumping a six-foot fence. People took this into consideration and enjoyed his tales anyway.
Andreas roamed about the United States before he began farming, He worked ‘in the Dakotas, Montana and cashed his savings into a gold mining project- the Colorado River Dredging Company sold him stocks and that was the last he heard from them.
Back in Winnebago County he found Emma Jorgenson still single. She was a good friend of his family but he was still indifferent. Bachelorhood seemed to be his fate.
Married
Andreas was forty and Ena thirty- three when he finally asked her to be his bride. The engagement camo about in a most objective way. On Thanksgiving Day, 1914, Emma and Andreas were married by Rev. Lee at Isanti, Minnesota. Georgina and Torn Thompson were the only witnesses.
They started farming with her parents, but in 1920 they bought one hundred and twenty of the one hundred and sixty acres for three hundred dollars an acre. One acre was four-fifths times more than what Halvor had paid for the whole farm in the homesteading days It was almost like homesteading all over again- only forty of the acres were tillable, and not a building could be found on the land.
Life was full of work and full of joys. Andreas used his carpentering ability to build the house the first year. The other building followed. Children were plentiful. In the first nine years of their marriage, seven children were born.
Every year new fields were broken and crops planted; trees were felled and dynamited. It took horses and trucks to get many of the roots pulled out of the ground. This was the Iowa oak belt and it proved useful. All of •two-by-fours used in the framework of the buildings came from this oak.
Emma still had her chance to be out of doors. In January she would start to buy seeds; before the frost was out of the ground they were planted in boxes and much too early she would be out scouting for her garden plot. It was more than a plot. It usually amounted to two or three acres. Every year the same controversy arose. Emma chose her plot, in the middle of the oat field and wanted the pumpkins planted in the com row. She usually won out.
The days were not as difficult as they had been in the days of Emma’s parents, There no running water or electric lights, but kerosene lamps were available and rain water could be pumped from a cistern under the kitchen. One lamp with a mantle hung from the dining room ceiling and could be lowered or raised with a chain.
Transportation wasn’t by boat, anymore. The horse and buggy Tag followed by a 1924 Model-T Ford. It was one of the first in the neighborhood and gave the children many pleasant days. Sunday afternoon meant a drive in the county. Cream cans on the floor in the back seat made room for all the eight children and Pa and Ma.
On weekdays, for nine months, Adelaide, Judith Elaine, Clara Helene, Anna Maria, Andrew Olaf, Maude, Hartvig Knute and Josephine Bernice Alice were sent to the Mogan schoolhouse on the Rice Lake Road. Discipline was often a problem for the one teacher with forty to sixty pupils in a one room square building. Boys learned to make alliances to protect themselves from similar leagues. The lunchbucket would be tied to a string outside the window and it was conveniently raised when a student felt, hungry. Some boys found a half-filled whiskey bottle and poured it, in the water cooler. The innocent girls thought it unusual water but drank it anyway. This water was carried by teams of two students from the Ole Juveland farm. It often was a problem to get the children to take their turn for Ole had a love of frightening some of the boys. A request to “leave the room” was made known by raising one finger. When the schoolroom felt hot it was so easy to feel a trip to the little white house behind the schoolhouse necessary.
Giving birth to babies was pretty much in the line of duty. Aslaug Jorgenson acted as a mid-wife for most of Andrea children. They were delivered in the home and Emma was working before the child was born and went back as soon as possible. The last baby, Joane, was born in 1928 in the peak of the good years. The depression came- everyone learned to wear “hand-me-downs” and actually liked it.
It didn’t hurt the family unity or love and better days to come were seen with a “New Deal.”
Another one-page story of the life of Halvor Jorgenson Sunderland
Halvor Jorgenson Sånderland was born in Treungen, Nissedal Sept 18, 1836, of parents Jorgen Sonderland and Birgit Tarjeisdotter Sånderland. He emigrated to America in the year 1866. He first came to Wisconsin, where he lived some years. He left for Winnebago County, Iowa, where he obtained 160 acres of “homestead” land a couple of miles south of Leake Mills and he lived there till he died.
In 1870 he was married to Aslaug Guldbrangdatter Aakri. Her parents were Guldbrand Aakri and Aasil Brynjulfsdatter Dyras, Nissedal, Telemark. Mrs. Aslaug Sonderland, whose maiden name was Guldbrandsdatter Aakri, was born in Nissedal, upper Telemark, Sept. 6, 1837. She and her brother, Ole Guldbrandsen, emigrated to America in 1868. It took 11 weeks to cross the ocean. When they came to Chicago, Pastor T.A.Torgerson boarded the train to find out whether there were any newcomers he could help. “He found us there, tells Mrs. Sånderland, “and glad were we that we met such a kind helpful man. “We kept company with him to Albert Lea, Minn. That was as far as we could travel by rail road at that time. Albert Lea consisted of only one building- a store. They were just then celebrating the 4th of July, when we came. We drove south some distance with Pastor Torgerson. He found a man who was willing to take us south to Aslak Thorvilgon, whose wife was a sister of Aslaug Aakri. Aslak Thorvilson had arrived a few years before. Aslaug now lives with her sister when she was not out working.
Mrs. Thorvilson advised her sister to find work in town so that she might learn English and also to bake and prepare meals American style, but this did not agree with Aslaug, she liked it best on the farm and accepted any kind of work among the farmers. When there was not enough to do in the house, she would be in the field and help the men with their work. Aslaug lost the opportunity to learn English, but she made progress without it, as anyone will realize who sees the nice farm with the beautiful herd of cows and the solid farm buildings. She never became used to the luxury to travel by railroad except the time she traveled across the country when she came from Norway. Aslaug did not work very long for other people, because two years after her arrival a young man by the name of Halvor Sonderland came to see the healthy maid from Telemark alone. He had something serious at heart. As to whether they had known each other in Norway or had been engaged before they arrived in America, we did not find out. This secret and private business should not be of concern to us, but something which concerns us when we are to write their biography is that these two-Halvor, and Aslaug— were married in the month of August, 1870. We do not -know which minister performed the marriage ceremony, but it was perhaps Pastor T. A. Torgerson, who at that time served Winnebago or as it was called at that time- Center Congregation.
Halvor had made a good choice. This couple lived together harmoniously for many years, cleared the farm of trees almost alone, brought up a large flock of children, ae it should be, assisted in the work of the church with labor and money and they were not any poorer because of it. Opposite was true-they were so successful that Halvor at the time of his death was a well-to-do man. But it involved a lot of work to get that far and they had many sorrows. Besides losing four of their children, were hit by a tornado in 1905(7?) which destroyed a good part of their farm and nearly destroyed the part of the family which were at home. This catastrophe must be further described. ln the afternoon of August 6th it became very calm and sultry. Not even a breath of air was moving.
See news clippings below. Adelaide Haugen Wegner was a favorite teacher of most of the Stan Holtan siblings and her husband, Mr. E. Vern Wegner, was the elementary principal. She is how we first met the Haugens, before our brother Paul married Linda Haugen. In our generation, Linda also had a brother, Hartwick, named after his uncle who died so young. (PEH)