Surname List
Name Index
Sources
Email Us
Second Generation
2.
Gena (Gunhild) MOGEN was born on Jan 20, 1880 in Numedal,
Norway. She died on Apr 12, 1974 in Ortley, SD. Changed
last name from GROTERUD to Mogen upon immigration. The editor had asked
Sharon Mundt Cornelius what she remembered about her Grandparents, his Uncle
and Aunt. Sharon writes: "My earliest memories of my grandmother, she looked
like she did when she was 90 with gray braided hair wound around her head. I
was 5 or 6 when my grandfather died. He had Parkinsons and I just remember him
sitting in a chair and shaking. Grandma would talk to him, but I could never
understand anything he said." The editor remembers Gena's daughter-in-law
Mary caring for her husband Iver in the same way. She always understood what
Iver would say to her, as I am sure that Gena understood August.
Gena (Gunhild)
MOGEN and August HOVLAND were married on Jun 17, 1902 in Blooming Valley Twp,
South Dakota.
August HOVLAND
was born on Aug 21, 1864 in St Peter, MN. He died on Oct 21, 1942.
August was born on a farm near St Peter, MN. He had three sisters and five
brothers. When the Sisseton-Wahpeton Indian Reservation was opened for settlement
in 1892, he came to South Dakota. He homesteaded 160 acres in Section 20 of
Blooming Valley Township, and lowlands that were always referred to as the "Meadow"
by the family, not the "old homestead".
Gena was teaching school in Blooming Valley at the time, they became acquainted
and were married on June 17, 1902. After their marriage they moved to Waubay,
where August and Pete Engelhart operated a hardware store. Iver, Bea and Agnes
were born while they lived in Waubay. In 1910 the Hovlands moved to the farm
located in parts of Sections 31 and 32 in Blooming Valley Township. Oliver,
Art, Bill and Ann were born on the farm.
August and his brother Ole Hovland developed and patented the traveling threshing
machine in a shop in St Paul, MN. The machines were steel with galvanized walls.
The era was before the arc welder, acetylene torch, roller bearings, grease
zerks and V-belts, and the men had to make patterns for the cast iron gears and
sprockets before forging them. It was truly and outstanding feat from men who
relied on their common sense and experience more than on education.
The first year after the machines were built, 100 acres were threshed on the
Hovland farm. The work was satisfactory, but there was no local interest. The
eight big threshing machine companies that had been notified did not send any
representatives to see the machines that were years ahead of their time. Because
of a lack of encouragement, the Hovland's machines were put aside and unused
until 1963 when a Canadian museum, working through August's son Iver,transported
the swather, combine and tractor to Canada and restored it for posterity
Ann Brennan wrote in 1990 of her father: " There are a couple of incidents
that stand out in my memory concerning my Dad. He was in his 50's developing
symptoms of Parkinson's disease and had to cope with a pre-schooler. My punishment
was to sit quietly in the living room for what seemed to me like hours and hours!
Finally he would inquire, "have you cooled off now?" I would run
out of the room, feeling very cool! When I was about six, someone gave me a
$1.00 bill. The only thing I wanted was a little calf I had played with and
fed. It took all the courage I could muster to ask my Dad if he would sell me
the calf for $1.00. He showed some humor when he said, "NO, that will cost
you $1.05. I begged, borrowed or stole the five cents and the calf was mine.
My Dad's quality of life really wasn't good when I knew him. He went to Rochester
Clinic about 1923, and was told that there was no cure for Parkinson's, but he
lived as an invalid most of the time until 1942."
Gena (Gunhild) MOGEN and August HOVLAND had the following children: