Martin V. Olsen Biography


	This biography appears on page 465 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				MARTIN V. OLSEN. 

	Martin V. Olsen, postmaster at Viborg and the owner of the 
electric light plant and the telephone system, was born in Turner 
county and has been closely identified with its development and 
upbuilding. The public schools afforded him his early educational 
opportunities and he afterward attended the University of South Dakota 
at Vermillion and also Sioux Falls College. He then engaged in the 
hardware and implement business, in which he continued for seven and a 
half years, on the expiration of which period he sold out and was 
appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt and reappointed by 
President Taft, his term expiring on the 29th of January, 1916, at 
which time he will have been the incumbent in the office for twelve 
years. He has also extended his efforts into other fields. He built the 
telephone system in 1903, with two hundred and sixty patrons, and the 
volume of business has since constantly increased. In 1908 he built the 
electric light plant. Viborg was the second town in the county that 
installed the electric lighting system. Mr. Olsen has been a pioneer in 
this line of business. He not only lights the city but furnishes power 
to private parties and his business is constantly growing. 

	On the 26th of November, 1901, Mr. Olsen was united in marriage 
to Miss Emma Goodhope, a daughter of C. S. Goodhope. They have one 
child, Lauris, who is eleven years of age. The parents hold membership 
in the Baptist church and Mr. OIsen gives his political allegiance to 
the republican party, believing that its platform contains the best 
elements of good government. He holds membership in the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen and he is a public-spirited citizen who has 
cooperated in many measures for the general good. He has served as 
school clerk, school treasurer and as school director and was one of 
the three who built the present high-school building of Viborg. He has 
also been alderman and mayor and for eight years has been justice of 
the peace in his county. His efforts have at all times been productive 
of good results for the benefit and upbuilding of city and county and 
while chief executive of Viborg he gave to the town a public spirited 
and beneficial administration based upon sound business principles and 
characterized by needed reforms and improvements He is now the owner of 
considerable real estate and farm lands and has two hundred and sixty-
seven acres in Turner county. His section of the state acknowledges him 
as one of its progressive business men, his work having been a valuable 
asset in public progress.