In August, the Ole and Grace Rollag family gathered for a 150-year reunion, celebrating 150 years since the family moved from Tinn, Norway. The reunion was well-attended, with 180 attending, including Ole's grandson, who traveled from Norway to join the festivities.
Ole and Grace came to America in 1873, when Grace was just twenty years old. She was called "Gro" by family, as that was the Norwegian pronunciation. They settled just east of Garretson, near Highway 23 and began their lives in a sod hut on the Minnesota side of the South Dakota/Minnesota border in 1874. Ole and Gro's life are part of the infamous book, "The Children's Blizzard," by David Laskin.
Ole and Grace together had 11 children, and as of the time of Grace's death in 1943 at age 92, nine were still surviving.
