Meeker County MN Archives Biographies.....Olsen, Johannes January 31, 1837 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 18, 2020, 1:37 pm

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JOHANNES OLSEN, a well-to-do and respected farmer, residing on section 32, Acton
township, is a native of Norway, born January 31, 1837, and a son of Ole and Sophia
Johnson, He came to the United Suites in 1857, and first stopped at St. Paul, r
where he hired to a man, named Fred Erickson, who held a Government contract for
furnishing hay. They cut the hay on the Minnesota River bottoms near Fort Snelling,
and the ground was so wet that they were obliged to carry it on poles to higher land
for stacking. After spending some time in this way, he, with six others, went to
Howard Lake, Wright county, and selected claims. Two of the party remained during
the winter to make the improvements necessary to hold the claims, while the others
returned to St. Paul to earn and send provisions to their two comrades. The
following spring Mr. Olsen returned to his claim, expecting to find a house erected
and other improvements, but as nothing had been done he went back to St. Paul to
find work. He had a hard and discouraging time of it, but in the fall he secured a
job on the railroad between St. Anthony and St. Cloud, and on the southeast side of
the Minnesota River, above Mendota. This was a very wet season, and they were
obliged to lay plank tracks in order to run their wheelbarrows. Returning then to
St. Paul he did not succeed in finding employment until after Christmas when he got
work cutting cord wood, which lasted until spring. His next move was to Point
Douglas, where he hired to a farmer for six months at $10 per month. At the
expiration of that time he returned to St. Paul and worked at building fiat boats,
and in the spring went with them to St. Louis, where he was paid off. During the
summer he worked at farming on Paint Creek Prairie, Allamakee county, Iowa, and
split and cut rails during the winter. The following spring - April 14, 1860 he was
married to Miss Mary Paulson, a daughter of Mathias and Mary Paulson. After his
marriage he rented a farm for two years, but the first season the chinch bugs
destroyed most of his crop. In 1864 he came to Meeker county, Minn., and took a
homestead on section 32, Acton township, where he has since lived.

Mr. and Mrs. Olsen have been blessed with the following children - Mathias, born
November 10, 1862, died July 15, 1885; Sophia Elizabeth, born October 12, 1864; Ole,
born March 15, 1867; Paul Emanuel, born September 17, 1869; and Carl Johan, born
February 16, 1877. The family are members of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. In
political matters Mr. Olsen affiliates with the republican party. Both of Mr.
Olsen’s parents died in Norway, His wife’s parents are also deceased - the father,
Mathias Paulson, died in Acton July 26, 1883; and the mother died September 19,
1880.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
ALBUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF Meeker County, Minnesota,
CHICAGO: Alden Ogle & Company, 1888.


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