Mrs. Jennie Haugen
By: Ressie Watts
From: Kelliher Independent newspaper
August 1963
I challenge all of you who have ever met or known Mrs. Ole Haugen, have you ever heard her say an unkind word or speak harshly? I believe her to be the gentlest woman I have ever known, sympathetic, willing to help.
She is also one of the hardest working women I have ever known. But she has a mind of her own and it can become stubborn too. This she admits - having returned Ole's ring a number of times before accepting it for keeps.
One of a family of eleven children, she was born on a farm in Hells P.O. Norway. Her oldest brother, Joe more or less ran the farm. it seems that is a custom there so the farm keeps the family name. This brother was married to a lovely Swedish girl who had a brother that came often to visit his sister and there Jennie and Ole met and through school days were sweethearts - off and on - until Jennie was 18 years old, the ring which had been given back several times was finally accepted for keeps.
When the year 1904 came around Ole was filled with wanderlust and decided to fill his pockets with gold in wonderful America. He bought a ticket to Buxton, N.D. where a friend of his had gone. She could come along or stay as she chose but he remarked it would not be long before he would return a rich man.
So the ring finally settled down neatly on Jennie's finger Sept. 23rd, 1904 in Norway and the young couple started abroad to America for a honeymoon trip that same day. Young and in love, seeking a new life together, spirits high, they eventually landed in North Dakota.
Ole worked the harvest fields for a while finding that wheat straw only "looked like gold" in the bright sun. They moved to Grand Forks and then to Fisher, Minnesota.
They homesteaded finally in 1908 in Norden (Minnesota) where so many other people had been led to homestead and making a living became a real problem! "There were sad and happy days," says Mrs. Haugen, "but I loved my work and my family." Ole had to go away to earn money and she was left with the children and the chores.
It was necessary to wear men's shoes for the ground was always wet and when the winters came the work tripled for her. She put one baby to sleep in bed and fastened one in the calf pen. The river was frozen over and a hole was cut for watering the cattle in the frozen river. She led one cow at a time to drink and back to the barn. Feeding, milking, watering, cleaning barn, churning, getting in wood, knitting, sewing, cooking and constant baby tending was the continuous daily life of the homesteader wife - and such was Mrs. Haugen.
Her biggest worry was for the oldest boy to walk alone 2 or 3 miles to school and back.
Ole was ten weeks in a hospital with typhoid and when they returned to their homestead everything they owned was burned to ashes. Only the iron bedstead and stove remained.
In 1919 after years of struggle and hardship, they were completely flooded out. One morning she opened her chicken house to find all her baby chicks floating dead around the frantic mother hen.
They built walkways of planks in order to reach the necessary places outside, but the water finally became so deep it lifted the rugs off the floor. So, Kelliher which had seemed a place one longed to go and visit, loomed like a haven to them. She came to town about once in two years. Now they decided to move there.
They lived several places after coming to town, having rented houses from Pfunds, the ball park donors, and Whitings. Then being forced to move again they decided on buying and so settled in their present home place.
They rented a farm from Latterells out by Bullhead Lake and carried milk from the old red barn to the house from where they carried on a dairy service for the town, making deliveries night and morning. Despite the laws and regulations that have forced the small man out of business, the Haugens, along with the Nielsen and Runnberg families, supplied wholesome, clean milk to the people in town. It was not pasteurized or A-1. It was a service between the man and his customers only and children were just as healthy or healthier.
"Those years were hard, very hard, but we were happy as a family. My children have all been a blessing to me, which is good." Mrs. Haugen said.
They had five children, Andy, Chester, Ann, Thelma and Oscar, who was killed in an accident.
She remembers most distinctly. Ole was mailman at Norden and often times carried the mail pack on his back and then finally getting a buggy - a two seater. "It vas beautiful!" said Mrs. Haugen. "Oh yes, ve have tings much verse den, but it vas nice also I tink!" Mrs. Haugen still talks very much with an accent but it is nice to listen to.
She has made one trip to Sweden. She and Mrs. Carrie Nielsen returned together in 1955. They were glad to come back to America - gold is not always a yellow metal.
Jennie died in 1978.
By: Ressie Watts
From: Kelliher Independent newspaper
August 1963
I challenge all of you who have ever met or known Mrs. Ole Haugen, have you ever heard her say an unkind word or speak harshly? I believe her to be the gentlest woman I have ever known, sympathetic, willing to help.
She is also one of the hardest working women I have ever known. But she has a mind of her own and it can become stubborn too. This she admits - having returned Ole's ring a number of times before accepting it for keeps.
One of a family of eleven children, she was born on a farm in Hells P.O. Norway. Her oldest brother, Joe more or less ran the farm. it seems that is a custom there so the farm keeps the family name. This brother was married to a lovely Swedish girl who had a brother that came often to visit his sister and there Jennie and Ole met and through school days were sweethearts - off and on - until Jennie was 18 years old, the ring which had been given back several times was finally accepted for keeps.
When the year 1904 came around Ole was filled with wanderlust and decided to fill his pockets with gold in wonderful America. He bought a ticket to Buxton, N.D. where a friend of his had gone. She could come along or stay as she chose but he remarked it would not be long before he would return a rich man.
So the ring finally settled down neatly on Jennie's finger Sept. 23rd, 1904 in Norway and the young couple started abroad to America for a honeymoon trip that same day. Young and in love, seeking a new life together, spirits high, they eventually landed in North Dakota.
Ole worked the harvest fields for a while finding that wheat straw only "looked like gold" in the bright sun. They moved to Grand Forks and then to Fisher, Minnesota.
They homesteaded finally in 1908 in Norden (Minnesota) where so many other people had been led to homestead and making a living became a real problem! "There were sad and happy days," says Mrs. Haugen, "but I loved my work and my family." Ole had to go away to earn money and she was left with the children and the chores.
It was necessary to wear men's shoes for the ground was always wet and when the winters came the work tripled for her. She put one baby to sleep in bed and fastened one in the calf pen. The river was frozen over and a hole was cut for watering the cattle in the frozen river. She led one cow at a time to drink and back to the barn. Feeding, milking, watering, cleaning barn, churning, getting in wood, knitting, sewing, cooking and constant baby tending was the continuous daily life of the homesteader wife - and such was Mrs. Haugen.
Her biggest worry was for the oldest boy to walk alone 2 or 3 miles to school and back.
Ole was ten weeks in a hospital with typhoid and when they returned to their homestead everything they owned was burned to ashes. Only the iron bedstead and stove remained.
In 1919 after years of struggle and hardship, they were completely flooded out. One morning she opened her chicken house to find all her baby chicks floating dead around the frantic mother hen.
They built walkways of planks in order to reach the necessary places outside, but the water finally became so deep it lifted the rugs off the floor. So, Kelliher which had seemed a place one longed to go and visit, loomed like a haven to them. She came to town about once in two years. Now they decided to move there.
They lived several places after coming to town, having rented houses from Pfunds, the ball park donors, and Whitings. Then being forced to move again they decided on buying and so settled in their present home place.
They rented a farm from Latterells out by Bullhead Lake and carried milk from the old red barn to the house from where they carried on a dairy service for the town, making deliveries night and morning. Despite the laws and regulations that have forced the small man out of business, the Haugens, along with the Nielsen and Runnberg families, supplied wholesome, clean milk to the people in town. It was not pasteurized or A-1. It was a service between the man and his customers only and children were just as healthy or healthier.
"Those years were hard, very hard, but we were happy as a family. My children have all been a blessing to me, which is good." Mrs. Haugen said.
They had five children, Andy, Chester, Ann, Thelma and Oscar, who was killed in an accident.
She remembers most distinctly. Ole was mailman at Norden and often times carried the mail pack on his back and then finally getting a buggy - a two seater. "It vas beautiful!" said Mrs. Haugen. "Oh yes, ve have tings much verse den, but it vas nice also I tink!" Mrs. Haugen still talks very much with an accent but it is nice to listen to.
She has made one trip to Sweden. She and Mrs. Carrie Nielsen returned together in 1955. They were glad to come back to America - gold is not always a yellow metal.
Jennie died in 1978.
