I was raised on the Skaug farm two miles west of Rothsay Minnesota. The Skaug family is a mystery to me, even though I feel intimately connected to them. My grandfather Garnett Johnson share cropped the Skaug farm and was willed the property following Inga Nettie Skaug’s passing. Netti passed while talking over the phone with my grandmother Lovey (Laverne).

Around the age of three or four, I remember visiting Nettie with my grandmother.  I was not allowed to enter the house and had to sit and wait on a chair in the entry. Nettie might have worried that I would break something valuable, or maybe there was fear I would freak out from her taxidermy animals? It’s hard to say for sure.

Four of the five Skaug children died on the farm where I was raised and after Nettie’s passing, the Wilken County Historical Society acquired most of the family’s possessions. A few boxes of photographs and records have been passed on to me and I might write a book someday titled; “Skaug Farm” chronicling my research into Hilmer, Pauli, Ida, Inga Nettie and the pipe wrench inventor Johan Skaug and their parents Peter & Olava (Skagness).  

There are some who considered the Skaugs’ house to be haunted and my mother and I did experience a few extraordinary happenings during our time there.  I hope to someday share what I discover about this talented family and in the process reconnect with my childhood self who will forever cherish his time at the Skaug Farm.