My grandparents were Nels & Ida Haugen. Nels immigrated from Norway in the early 1900’s. Ida’s parents immigrated from Sweden a bit earlier to Minnesota. I don’t know anything about how they met or where. They first lived in a town in North Dakota called Des Lacs. Then at some point they moved to the Berthold area where my Father grew up in a small white prairie house.

They had 8 children: Harald (Dute), Josephine, Norah, Anne, Victor, Helen, Donald & Lyle. These were hardy folks who lived without electricity in the cold North Dakota winters in a tiny house that may have been about 400 – 500 square feet (at best).

When I was a child growing up in New Hampshire, we took a trip to “the Family Homestead” in North Dakota. The house still stands, falling down, at my Cousin Ed’s place which is the original homestead. I was amazed at how tiny it was and I was lucky enough to bring home their original telephone with crank handle. It is a huge and heavy beast that was their only form of communication.

Mostly what I remember is that wonderful red barn and the cattle grazing in the grass. Nels owned a livery stable and was a heavy drinker. He buried the bottles in the barn and apparently was nicer to his cattle than he was to his children. I think Ida did her best to raise the children and educate them. They went to school in a little one room prairie school house where my father later became a teacher.

This is a picture I have had for 30 years that was taken by a farmhand named Will. The current farm is named “Will’s Lake Ranch” and is operated by Ed Haugen today.