Bio: Haugen Bros. (1916)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Haugen

----Source: Republican and Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 28, 1916

Haugen Bros. (1916)

Write up of the Haugen Bros. from the Express - San Antonio

Neillsville, Wis., is a little town of 1,800 souls, yet it makes an unusual bid for fame because it has given the "Haugen Brothers" to the country when it needed men.  Some weeks ago, when the call came for the National Guard, Neillsville gave its famous family of bachelors, a half dozen of whom have been keeping house for the last eight years. These bachelors, believers in preparedness, closed up their home, donned the uniform of the United States Army and came to San Antonio with the Third Wisconsin Infantry.  All of them are members of Company A of this regiment, and they are soldiers quite as good as any to be found in the ranks.  The Haugen family, of Norwegian extraction, has run largely to "boys".  There are ten of these and one girl.

Rangwald Haugen, a former lieutenant of Company A, is just now in Montana; Theodore, another member of the company, is in South Dakota; Freeman, another brother, has cast his lot in Kentucky, and Tolmar has gone west to California to build up his fortune.

If there is another instance where eight brothers have been members of one company in the National Guard, the records do not show it.  Of the brothers now here, Arthur, a musician, is the head of the family; Joseph, who has the rank of sergeant, is in the lumber business; Otto is connected with a bottling establishment; Herman has no particular business, Nelvin stays at home and superintends the bachelor establishment, and Thorneil is a student.

"Hyper", the family bow-wow, who will pass muster any day as a regular dog, would not stay at home and also made the long journey southward.  Hyper is now the mascot of Company A and ready to defend the title at any moment.