Henry J. Haugen was born at Hendrum, Minnesota, November 20, 1881, to parents John J. and Kari Haugen, who had immigrated from Bergen, Norway.  Henry moved to Griggs County, North Dakota, in 1883, with his parents who settled in Greenfield Township.  Henry had seven brothers and five sisters.  The children's names were: Henry, Bennie, Julius, Carl, Magnes, Melvin and Herman.  The girls were Annie, Dora, Julia, Emma and Mary.

Henry married in 1905, to Bertha Horvei, who had immigrated from Evanger, Norway in 1902, to Mayville, Minnesota.  After marriage, Henry and Bertha settled on a 160 acre farm adjoining Grandpa John's.  Their children included Clara (Gullickson), Oliver, Selma (Aasen), Hazel (Framstad), Sig, Florence (Olson), and Vivian (Sorby).

Our family lived six miles from Hannaford, North Dakota, where we did most of our shopping.  We were on the Hannaford mail route.  We children attended the Goplin School, which later became the Haugen School.  Some of us attended Hannaford High School.  Hazel graduated in 1931, with a class of eight.  Beginning the freshman class were 23 students, but many of these students had to seek employment in order to survive so dropped out.

Days on the North Dakota prairie were difficult.  Many farmers struggled to pay off their farms, build up their dairy herd, acquire machinery and horses.  We always tried to have a garden and planted many acres of potatoes.  Below you will see a snapshot of three people, Bertha, John and Kari Haugen, cutting seed potatoes.  The next picture shows Carl and Emma Johnson, sons Willard and Arthur and Selma Haugen during the harvest of potatoes.  The potatoes were picked and stored in the cellar.  By spring there were very few left as our menu included potatoes in every meal prepared in numerous ways.  We ate boiled, mashed, fried potatoes, potatoes and eggs for breakfast, lefse, klub, lapskaus - even the boiled potato water was used in Bertha's bread.

Every family had their own problems, nobody had more than the other.  Survival came for each family because of the sharing between all the neighbors.  Many times we borrowed a half pound of butter because our cows were not fresh.  The neighbors would come back in need of a few potatoes to feed their family for a few days.  Everyone knew when someone was in need.  Aunt Elsie brought a half gallon of milk she had left after feeding her large family, knowing our family of seven children could use every drop that was left.

Henry and Bertha were generous people sharing meat, potatoes, eggs, good home churned butter and buttermilk.  Bertha shared other skills providing midwife service to other families.  She also sewed most of the clothes for her family including coats.  She knitted socks and mittens for the men and helped with milking the cows.  Henry was a sturdy hard-working farmer who never reaped many benefits for his industrious efforts.  He and his brother, Bennie, had a threshing rig and traveled within the neighborhood doing threshing.  He also participated in community efforts such as playing the tuba in the community band and playing the fiddle at barn dances.  He was a "klokker" in the Union Church until that service was discontinued.  (Klokker means he had the opening prayer and led the congregational singing.) Henry always chewed a stick of gum Sunday mornings to cover up the smell of tobacco on his breath.  When Henry began reading the service, he would roll up his gum and put it in his vest pocket.  Every Monday morning Bertha had to scrape gum out of his pocket.  Both Henry and Bertha and several of their children sang in the church choir.  They both taught Sunday School and Bertha was active in Ladies Aid and Luther League.  Church was the center of their social life and raising their family to know good Christian values was an important mission in their life.

Source:  Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 141