Harold Vasfaret was born July 17, 1859 at Flaa, Norway. Several relatives had gone to the United States to make their homes, so, he too, decided to leave for the new land. After a long trip by boat and then by train, they arrived at Cooperstown, North Dakota, on July 1, 1890. Harold Vasfaret, the father, had come 3 days earlier because of an error on the train tickets. Mrs. Vasfaret and two small boys, Gilbert and Halgrim, had been sent first to Canton, South Dakota.
Gilbert Auren, a brother-in-law of Harold Vasfaret met them at Cooperstown with a lumber wagon. They went to the Amund Gilbertson farm, where Mr. Vasfaret worked for two years. Mr. Vasfaret and Mr. Gilbertson were brothers, the latter having arrived in North Dakota in 1881. He had lived in Iowa before coming to this state.
In 1892 the Vasfaret family moved to a farm on the NW quarter of Section 12-145-58. In 1894 the Vasfarets moved about 2 miles west near the bridge over the Sheyenne river, where they lived in a two-story log house which had been Arne Luckason's. They moved to their own home in Section 3 in the fall of 1901, where the family lived for many years.
Harold Vasfaret died November 2, 1903 leaving his widow, Kari, with the responsibility of raising a family of ten children, the oldest being about 16 years of age. The children were:
Gilbert, Halgrim, Michael, Amund, Christ, Sophia, (Mrs. Bernard Loge), Christie, (Mrs. Hans Loge), Martin, Mary, (Mrs. Oliver Bjugstad), Harold and Albert. Mrs. Kari Vasfaret died October 7, 1938. Albert had passed away shortly after birth in 1902.
Three of Mr. and Mrs. Vasfaret's children are living at the present time:
Martin in Cooperstown, he married Bernice Larson and they had 6 children:
Harold, lone, Milo, Mavis, Vernon and Blanche. Sophia's husband, Bernard Loge, passed away in 1948, they had four children:
Homer, Marshall, Luann and Burnette. Mary lives at Hastings, Nebraska with her husband, Oliver Bjugstad. They had four children:
Harlan, Twylla, LeRoy and William. Other grandchildren of the Vasfaret's are:
Arlene, James, Norman, Doris and Ralph (deceased) children of Amund and Julia Vasfaret
Delphine, Harlowe and Gerald Loge, children of Christie and Hans Loge.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 442