Gerrit Van Bruggen was born in the Netherlands in 1872. He grew to manhood there, and married Henrietta Kamphoff in 1900. Ten years earlier, in 1890, three of Gerrit's brothers had emigrated to America, "The Land of Opportunity." After settling in Iowa, and working there for several years, they wrote their family in Holland that there was a future for them in America. Gerrit and Henrietta prepared to pack their belongings and family of four children, as well as three other Van Bruggen families from there. Tom Casey, a land agent from Litchville, North Dakota, had advertised area farms for sale and rent in a Holland language newspaper in Iowa. The three brothers answered the advertisement and eventually came to Litchville. After a long trip over the ocean, a party of twenty Van Bruggens arrived in Litchville on March 10, 1906. Smallpox was contracted on the boat which resulted in the death of one adult and three children. They had to bury their own dead at night. The neighbors were very good and bought groceries and set them on the road near the farm. The neighbor women also baked bread for them till they learned how and got their own equipment. After living the first few months on a farm in the Grisvold area, Gerrit, Henrietta and family rented a farm in Rosebud township, the Northeast ¼ of Section 32, and lived there eleven years. They helped with the organization of the First Reformed Church congregation in Litchville in 1906. In the winter of 1907 Litchville was snowbound so in order to conserve coal the Gerrit Van Bruggens moved in with the Henry Van Bruggen family (4 adults and 9 children in a 3 room house) and burned twisted flax straw logs to keep warm. Gerrit and Henrietta and family moved to a farm west of Marion in the spring of 1916 and lived there until 1947 when they retired and moved into Litchville. Eight children were born to this union:

Gerrit Jr.,
Allie,
Ben,
Gertrude,
Henry,
Albert,
Alida and
William.

Allie died of smallpox and Albert died shortly after birth in 1909. The other six children grew to adulthood, married and settled in Barnes County or nearby. Gerrit, Jr., married Rena Rienstra and purchased a farm north of Litchville, where his son Gerrit Dennis and wife now live. Ben married Gertrude Lengkeek and farms north of Marion. Gertrude married Harold Boom. They farmed north of Marion but are now retired. Henry married Hattie Ten Clay, farmed and did trucking but are now retired in Holland, Michigan. Alida married John Miedema. They farmed for some time but spent most of the lime working in Valley City where John was employed by the Northwest Nursery and later by the County Highway Department. Allie worked at the Sheyenne Hospital until retirement. William married Mary Bremer, purchased a farm in the North Marion area and is farming there now.

Gerrit, Sr. died in 1949. Henrietta died in 1969 and Gerrit Jr., died in 1971.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 255