History of Winnebago County and Hancock County Iowa
Vol. II  Chicago: Pioneer Publishing Company, 1917

H

Edward R. Haugland is one of the most successful business men of Lake Mills and the meat market which he conducts is a model establishment of the kind, no expense having been spared to secure the most complete, up-to-date and sanitary equipment. He was born in Center township, this county, August 21, 1882, and is a son of Rasmus and Sarah (Sunderland) Haugland, a sketch of whose lives appears above. Until sixteen years old be attended the common schools and subsequently for seven years gave his time and attention to helping with the work of the home farm. When twenty-three years old he rented that place and operated it on his own account for three years, after which he went to Ward county, North Dakota, where be purchased a quarter section of land. Three years later he sold that place and returned to Winnebago county. For a year he was employed as a butcher by M. G. Johnson, of Lake Mills, and then engaged in the butchering business for himself in Rowan, Wright county, Iowa. Upon selling that business he, in partnership with M. G. Johnson, bought a meat market at Lake Mills from Bang & Mortenson. Two years later his brother, Helmer C. Haugland, bought out Mr. Johnson's interest and the two brothers have since conducted the market, which is one of the leading business enterprises of Lake Mills. The sales room is finished in white and there is also a specially constructed cooling and freezing room supplied with the modern type of ammonia refrigerating system. They do their own killing and their methods of preparing the meat for the market are the best known. At every step the utmost care is taken to ensure absolute cleanliness.

Mr. Haugland makes his home with his parents. In religious faith he is a United Lutheran and his political views are in accord with the principles of the republican party, whose candidates he supports at the polls. In the management of his business he displays unusual progressiveness coupled with sound judgment and his continued success is assured.

RASMUS O. HAUGLAND submitted by Gordon Felland

Rasmus O. Haugland, a retired farmer living in Lake Mills, has reached the advanced age of eighty-two years and receives the respect and honor to which his long, active and well-spent life entitles him. He was born in Norway, October 18, 1834, of the marriage of Ole G. and Ingeborg (Gunderson) Haugland who in 1846 removed with their family to Dane county, Wisconsin, where both passed away and are buried. The father engaged in farming and also taught school in Norway. To them were born twelve children, of whom three grew to maturity and of whom our subject is the only one now living.

Rasmus O. Haugland began his education in the common schools of his native country and continued it in the schools of Dane county, Wisconsin, until he was sixteen years old. From that time until 1867 he worked as a lumberman, cutting timber along the Wisconsin river and taking the lumber down the Mississippi to St. Louis. In 1867 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Center township, Winnebago county, Iowa, and from that time until 1914 was continuously engaged in its improvement and cultivation. During that time his land, which had been in a raw state when it came into his possession, was brought to a high degree of cultivation, many improvements were made thereon and his resources steadily increased, enabling him to retire from active life in 1914. He then took up his residence in Lake Mills, where he owns an attractive home. He helped organize the Lake Mills Creamery Company, the Lake Mills Lumber Company, the Leland Creamery Company, the Farmers Elevator Company at Leland and the Mount Valley Threshing Company at Leland. He still owns a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he rents, and twenty acres of timberland.

In 1867 Mr. Haugland married Miss Sarah Sunderland, a daughter of Ole H. and Anna Sunderland, natives of Norway, who on emigrating to the United States first located in Dane county, Wisconsin, but in 1866 removed to Winnebago county, Iowa, whence they went to Wright county, North Dakota, where they died and are buried. To Mr. and Mrs. Haugland were born eleven children, of whom four died in youth, while seven survived namely: Emma, now Mrs. L. E. Peterson, of Forest City, Iowa; Anna, the wife of T. A. Thompson, of Center township; Oscar, who married and resides at Nashua, Montana - Edward, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume; Helmer, who is married and resides in Lake Mills; Emil, a traveling salesman of St. Paul, Minn.; and William, a resident of Forest City.

Mr. Haugland is a stanch republican and has done much effective work for his party. His first presidential vote was cast for John C. Fremont and he has lived under eighteen presidents in the United States and under two kings in Norway. He has always taken a commendable interest in public affairs and for one term was county supervisor, for four years justice of the peace and for a number of years school director. In religious faith he is a United Lutheran. He began his independent career with no capital save his energy, strength and sound judgment, and these qualifications have proved amply sufficient, as he is -now one of the substantial men of the county. He has a wide acquaintance and holds a warm place in the regard of many.

ABRAHAM T. HAUGO submitted by Gordon Felland

Abraham T. Haugo is successfully engaged in business in Lake Mills as a real estate dealer, specializing in local and North Dakota lands, and is also the agent for the Studebaker cars. He was born in Norway on the 10th of March, 1874, of the marriage of Torjus 0. and Anna (Midbo) Haugo, farming people of that country. In 1888 they removed with their family to the United States and located at what is now Joice, Worth county, Iowa. Not long afterward, however, the father purchased a farm in Mount Valley township, Winnebago county, which he operated until his death in 1894. The mother survives.

Abraham T. Haugo, who is the third in order of birth in a family of four children, attended school in Norway until he was fourteen years old and for a short time in Winnebago county. He worked for his father upon the homestead until he attained his majority and following his marriage he rented a farm in Grant township for four years. He next moved to Forest City, where he was connected with the real estate business for three years as an employee of the firm of Dannihar & Maben. From 1903 to 1910 he operated a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Bristol township, Worth county, which he owned, and upon leaving that place he took up is residence in Lake Mills. He is there engaged in the real estate business with J. B. Conley, under the name of The Haugo-Conley Land Agency, and has given especial attention to local and North Dakota lands. He has gained a gratifying measure of success and his annual business has now reached large proportions. He is also agent for the Studebaker automobile and has proved an energetic and efficient representative of the company.

In 1896 Mr. Haugo was married to Miss Elizabeth Florentz, a daughter of Mathias Andreas and Henrietta Florentz, of Telemarken, Norway. To them were born eleven children, and Mr. and Mrs. Haugo have seven children, all at home, Anna, Erling, Lila, Henrietta, Teresa, Magna and Astrid.

Mr. Haugo votes the republican ticket, but has never sought office, as his private interests have made heavy demands upon his time. He belongs to the Lutheran church and its work has profited much from his hearty support. He began his independent business career without capital but as the result of his persistent and well directed efforts he is now one of the substantial men of his community.

REV. MARTIN HEGLAND, PH. D. submitted by Gordon Felland

In the educational field the name of Dr. Martin Hegland, president of Waldorf College at Forest City, is well known. He is yet a comparatively young man but has already made for himself an enviable position in the field of Christian education and his work- is reaching out through its influence and inspiration over a wide territory. He took charge of Waldorf College and its work on the 1st of January, 1915, being then thirty-five years of age. His birth occurred on the 20th of January, 1880, in Merton, Steele county, Minnesota, to which place his parents had removed on leaving Nedre Telemarken, Norway, their native country. They settled upon a farm upon which Dr. Hegland spent his boyhood and youth, acquiring his early education in the country schools, after which he entered upon the work of the eighth grade in the schools of Owatonna, Minnesota, where he later completed high school work, being graduated after taking the Latin-scientific course. He was president of his class in his senior year. After finishing his high school course he matriculated in St. Olaf College at Northfield, Minnesota, where he pursued the study of the classics and during that period was an active member of the different college societies. He also served for two years on the editorial staff of the college paper and was editor-in-chief of the "Viking '04." As a representative of the senior class he won the Ware oratorical contest and as representative of the college won the state contest in competition with the different colleges of the state. Following his graduation from St. Olaf College he was elected superintendent of schools and teacher in the high school at Fertile, Minnesota, where he remained for three years, and while engaged in secular schoolwork. he continued an active worker in the church as superintendent of the Sunday school, as president of the Luther League and as teacher of the Bible class in the United Church congregation. His interest in church work led him to take up the study of theology at the United Church Seminary, from which he was graduated with the -class of 1910, and while there he also studied at the University of Minnesota, specializing along the lines of English philology, education and history of philosophy. He won the M. A. degree in 1908 and during the summer vacation of that year he substituted for Rev. C. K. Solberg, of the Zion church in Chicago. During the following summer he was advance agent for the St. Olaf Band on their twelve weeks' trip to the Pacific coast, which included a visit to the Seattle Exposition, and in the summer of 1910 he filled the pulpit during the absence of the Rev. J. C. Roseland in the Covenant church of Chicago.

Dr. Hegland afterward became a student at Columbia University in New York city, where he specialized on education, pursuing the studies of history of education, educational philosophy and psychology, and educational administration and comparative education, the last two receiving particular attention. He was awarded the Foreign Fellowship by the university and went abroad to make a special study of the school systems of the European countries. He also visited most of the colleges and universities in the eastern part of the United States.

Following his return from Europe, Dr. Hegland was called to the pastorate of the United Lutheran congregation at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and in 1913 was ordained to the ministry. The same year he submitted his thesis on the subject "The Danish People's High School," and the degree of Ph. D. was conferred upon him by Columbia University in 1914. At the annual meeting of the United Church in that year he was elected one of the associate editors of the "United Lutheran."

In the fall of 1914 he was called to the pastorate of the United Lutheran' congregation of Forest City and to the presidency of Waldorf College and on the 1st of January, 1915, entered upon his duties. He is often called upon to speak on educational and religious matters and is a contributor to church publications.

Dr. Hegland was married in 1911 to Miss Georgina E. Dieson, of Dell Rapids, South Dakota, who was graduated from the high school there and later from St. Olaf College in 1904. She served as teacher and preceptress at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, from 1904 until 1907, and occupied the same position at St. Olaf College from 1909 until 1911. She also did some post-graduate work at the Columbia University and she is of great assistance to her husband in the performance of his duties in both the pastoral and educational fields. Dr. and Mrs. Hegland now have a little daughter, Anna Tonette, born June 13, 1915.

Dr. Hegland is concentrating every effort upon the upbuilding of the church and school. It would be tautological in this connection to enter into any series of statements showing him to be a man of broad scholarly attainments, for this has been shadowed forth between the lines of this review. He ever keeps in close touch with the trend of modern thought concerning all those questions which have to do with the welfare of mankind and are of vital significance to the country. While possessing a studious nature, he combines with it the intensely practical and is thoroughly alive to all those, questions and interests which are engaging public thought and calling forth activity. He lives not in the past nor the future but in the present with its multiform duties and problems, and yet he looks beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and possibilities for good in later years.

OLE HOVEY submitted by Dick Barton

Although he started out in life for himself in limited circumstances Ole Hovey, is today one of the substantial citizens of Ellington township, Hancock county, owning and operating a fine farm on section 12. He is of Scandinavian birth, being born in Norway, June 24, 1844, and is a son of Ole and Runde Hovey, who were lifelong residents of that country. During his boyhood our subject attended the common schools of Norway and he remained in his native land until about twenty-three years of age.

It was in the spring of 1867 that Mr. Hovey crossed the Atlantic to the United States and located in Winneshiek county, Iowa, where he worked as a farm hand for two years. At the end of that time he came to Hancock county and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 14, Ellington township. As money was scarce at that time and hard to get he traded eighty acres of his land for a team of horses and later sold forty acres of the original tract but has since added to his property from tie to time until he now owns two hundred acres of very valuable land and his wife owns one hundred and twenty acres. That he thoroughly understands the occupation he has chosen as a life work is demonstrated by the success that he has achieved and he now ranks among the well-to-do farmers of his community.

In 1867 Mr. Hovey was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Rude, also a native of Norway, who came to the United States on the same vessel which brought her husband to this country. Of the six children born to them, three are living, namely: Oscar, now a ranchman of Colorado; K. O., who operates the home farm; and Emma, the wife of Joseph Harris, of Cerro Gordo county, Iowa.

Mr. Hovey is now practically living retired, leaving his son K. O. to carry on the work of the farm. In the early days he endured many hardships and privations but as time passed he steadily prospered and is now the owner of a fine farm under excellent cultivation. By his ballot he supports the men and measures of the republican party and he takes a commendable interest in public affairs.