Biographies:  Ole Br. OLSON, Eau Claire, Eau Claire Co., WI 

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Nance Sampson  <nsampson@spacestar.net>  13 December 2000	
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Ole Br. Olson, born May 19, 1857, at Christiania, Norway, was destined 
to become the leader of the Norwegian Prohibition party in this country.  
He was a splendid orator, probably the most talented one among his own 
people.  He was also an efficient writer, and the change in sentiment 
with reference to intoxicating drinks which is marked among Norwegians 
in Eau Claire, as well as other places in the Norwegian-America, is in 
a high degree due to this splendid man's self-sacrificing and indefatigable 
work for total abstinence and prohibition.  It is noteworthy that the 
largest city in our state under "no license," Stoughton, is also the most 
Norwegian town, and the driest counties are those where the Norwegians 
are the strongest.  In Minnesota, the largest "no license" city is Willmar, 
and this rivals Fergus Falls in being the strongest Norwegian city in 
Minnesota.  Fergus Falls is the largest city that ever carried for "no 
license" in Minnesota.  The driest county in Minnesota, "Norman," is 
also the most Norwegian county.  Of five members elected to the Minnesota 
legislature in the year 1910 on a straight prohibition ticket four were 
Norwegians.  The strongest Norwegian state, North Dakota, is a prohibition 
state.  The prohibition tickets in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South 
Dakota had at one time all a Norwegian at the top, while Wisconsin had one 
the next to the highest.  The prohibition movement is an ultra-American 
movement in which few foreigners are taking part; so much more credit to 
the Norwegians that they found their ways into those ranks and into such 
numbers, but this is principally due to the labor of Mr. Ole Br. Oleson, 
who was laid to rest at the Rose Hill cemetery in the early spring of 1903.

--Taken from "The History of Eau Claire County, 1914, Past & Present",
page 580.