OLSON ANCESTORS
Gen's family - Olsons.
Andrew Miller Olson holding Frances, Anna (Birkland) Olson,
Genevieve standing on stool. Anna died two years later
giving birth to a baby boy who also died. Andrew
remarried and had a large family. Gen and Frances lived
with Andrew's parents in Lantry.
Gen and Frances, 1920
Gramp Olson's house in Lantry.
All the additions were added later
after they had moved and it is still occupied.
Gen and Frances were raised here.
Christopher and Ingeborg Christine (Paulson) Olson.
The child is Lois Farstad, their daugher Myrtle's child.
Gramp was born in Somsoi, Denmark (E. Coast), 2-24-1860,
the son of Ole Christopherson..(Ole's son became Olson). He died
on December 7, 1938, Lantry, SD.
Gen's father, Andrew's family: Christopher Olson was born February 24, 1860, in Somsoy, on the east coast of Denmark. He had one sister, Barbara, and one brother who drowned. Chris came to Dwight, Illinois in 1883. Having learned carpentry and cabinet making in Denmark, he was a carpenter in coalmines in Illinois. He married Ingeborg Paulson in Dwight, IL, in 1888. She was born December 4.1870, of Danish parents, in Schleswig-Holstein, a portion of Denmark that was captured by Bismark in 1872. She learned to speak both Danish and German before she came to America in 1886. She and a girl friend came to Dwight, IL. when Ingeborg was 16 years old. She had three sisters and one brother. One of her sisters lived in North Dakota and Chris and Ingeborg visited her there in 1909. Hearing about homestead drawings in Aberdeen, S.D., Chris went there to successfully draw a homestead number for land near Lantry, S.D. In 1910 Chris and his oldest son, Ole, built a house, barn and granary on the land. Chris returned to Illinois that fall, had a sale, and brought his family to Lantry in February 1911. That fall, he and Ole went to N.D. to work in the harvest fields to earn some income. In 1912, Ole and Andrew, (the second son) went to ND to again work in the harvest fields. In 1913, Chris rented a farm in ND, and moved the family there in the spring of 1913. In 1920, the family moved back to Lantry where they lived the rest of their lives. Chris died in 1938, and Ingeborg died in 1939. They had seven children, one of whom died when he was 13 months old. How Chris and Ingeborg met isn't clear. Her father came to Chicago where she worked as a housemaid. They spoke Danish to each other, so their reminiscing wasn't understood by Gen and Frances. Now and then they would tell a story of the old days in English, but not the details you would have if you could have understood their visiting with each other, Gen said.
Children born to them were:
Ole Frederik, b. April 27,1889; d. 1963; m. Myrtle Thomas of Illinois.
Andrew Miller, b. July 30, 1892; d. 1894....
(Gen's father)
Andrew Miller, b. August 3, 1895; d. 1977; m. Anna Birkland of N.D., who
died in 1921; he then m. Gertrude Weicker of Eagle Butte, S.D.
Myrtle Olina, b. June 12,1902; m, Arthur Farstad of Minnesota.
Ernest Waldemar, b. May 12, 1905; m._Clara Birkeland of Dupree, S.D.
Vernon Russell, b. March 20, 1908; d.at 13 months of age
Margaret Edna, b. July 20, 1910; d. November 1965; m. Charles Cudmore of
Timber Lake, S.D., divorced; and m. Langdon Bisbee of California.
Andrew Miller Olson, had two children while married to Anna
Birkland; Genevieve, b. 1918; and Frances, b. in 1919. When Anna
died he later married Gertrude Weicker. They had 5 children, Daisy
Barger, Andrew, Delores Lund, Loren and Patty.
Andrew Miller Olson, Gen Miller's Dad. (His middle
name "Miller" was quite a coincidence.)
Gen's mother Anna's, family: Kristin (or Christian) Birkland came from Norway to Iowa in the
1880's. He worked on the railroad awhile, then moved to North Dakota and farmed
near his brother John. In 1894, he returned to Norway to marry Marie Kalve, and
bring her to America. He was about 35 and she was 27. They lived five miles out
of Finley, ND where Marie was born on November 5, 1895. Anna was born March 17,
1897, and Harriet was born about 1900. Their mother had a cousin, John Ostervald,
in Washington State, who asked Kristin and Marie to move there to do commercial
fishing. They moved in 1903, when Marie was 8, Anna was 6, and Harriet was 4
1/2. John Ostervald met them with a flat scow and took them to an island on the
Columbia River where they were to live. Kristin bought 40 acres on this island
and stood in a boat while he chopped trees to clear some land and build a house.
The house was built on 6 foot high stilts. He wouldn't let the girls go to
public school until they were 8 years old, but they had to have lessons at home
... or else! Anna, Marie and Harriet spent all the time possible on the
fishing boats with their Dad, but none ever learned to swim. When their mother
worried about that fact, their dad said, "What's the difference? You are as dead
on land as in water, if you are dead!"
Kristin died in 1912 at the age of 61. Marie died
in 1918 at 59. They are buried in Finley, North Dakota.
