Svanhild Brennhaugen of Snertingdal, Norway knew some of her family history here in Moody County. In fact, some of her Moody County family had visited her in the past in Norway so that they might better connect and learn more about each other and the lives that their ancestors lived.
She wanted to learn more, however, about her great uncles — brothers Ole and Lars Brennhaugen, who settled in Moody County in 1903. Chances are you know them as Haugen, as that is what the family name was changed to upon the brothers’ arrival in the U.S.
This past week, Brennhaugen, her husband, Odd Larsen and their son and family gathered with extended family in Moody County for a week of conversation, information gathering, the sharing of photos and stories, and for everyone to better know the children that will carry the family’s name and legacy forward.
“We had an awesome few days with them,” said Debbie Johnson Kamber, a cousin from Sioux Falls who helped organize the family’s time together this past week.
“We spent all day Monday in Flandreau and rural Moody County, stopping to see the tribe’s bison herd, visiting the two Haugen family farms, North Clare and Clare cemeteries and capped off with a Haugen family gathering at Lynette and Vince Klein’s,” she said.

A little family history
There were eight children born to Olaus Olsen and Mathea Pedersdatter in the Snertingdal and Oppland areas in Norway in the late 1800’s. Of those eight children, six came to North America. Some settled and farmed in the Camrose, Canada area. Ole and Lars found their way to Moody County.  
The Haugen brothers farmed in the northwest part of the county. Ole and Lars married sisters, Alma and Julia Bjerke.
Ole and Alma had five children: Hilmer (married Minnie Scheck), Orville (married Vera Lamp), William, Melford (married Hazel Leeland) and Adalyn married Pete Remme).
Lars and Julia had three children: Lillian (married Pete Thelen), Lawrence (married Doris Eriksrud) and Emily (married Don K. Johnson).
All were raised in Moody County and many of the family, growing yet today, still farm the same land that Ole and Lars first began to tend in 1903. Lars’ great-grandsons, Brian Klein and Bradley Klein, oversee the farming operation.
There were just two that stayed in Norway. Ole and Lars’ oldest brother, Peder Brennhaugen, stayed on the farm in Snertingdal. The family farm, research has shown them, has been in the Brennhaugen family since the 1500’s.

Their sister, Beathe, also stayed in Norway. Peder’s great granddaughter, is Svanhild Brennhaugen.

What Brennhaugen says she now knows, “Lars and Ole had a good life with their own farms and big, nice families. They had to work hard, but they succeeded. I think the Norwegians and all their Norwegian relatives in the area had a good social life there too. They were related to the Hasvolds, Snuggeruds and Olsons, too.”

Brennhaugen and her family plan to enjoy a few days of sightseeing after leaving Moody County and then make their way  to Camrose, Canada to see where the other four siblings settled.