Lars Olesen Family

OLESEN, TORESON, RAEPE

Posted By: Cathy Joynt Labath (email)
Date: 9/21/2006 at 19:02:56

--From Graettinger [Palo Alto Co, IA] Centennial 1893-1993

LARS OLESEN FAMILY

Lars Olesen was born in Denmark in 1843. He came to the United States as a young man.

In the fall of 1869, several homesteaders met at Fort Dodge, Iowa, while selecting land. They became acquainted and together came to Palo Alto County and settled in the northwest part of the county. These men were Lars Olsen, L.C.Christensen, James Olesen, L.P. Duhn, John Nelson, J.J. Skow and P.C. Adamson.

Lars settled on a farm in Walnut Township which is four miles south and one and one-fourth miles west of Graettinger, Iowa. Lars built a sod house on the farm where he settled. He trapped muskrat for five cents apiece and could get about fifty a day as there was a lot of swamp.

Lars married Gunild Toreson and they built a house to replace the sod house. They had seven children who were: Ole, Carrie, Hannah, Theodore, Oscar, Albert and Elvena.

Lars and several other Dane settlers began planning for religious services in the community. From 1884 to 1892 services were held in the schoolhouses, homes, bans and other convenient places. They wanted to build a church in the future but first land and money had to be obtained so Lars and his brother, Jens Olesen, donated the land for a cemetery and they also built the Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church. Lars was on the board and was also the janitor for a while.

Several years later Lars had a house built on the hill just west of the farm. Sometime later, after Lars died in 1915, that house was moved to Graettinger, Iowa, and Gunild, Lars’ wife, lived with her daughter, Elvena and her husband, Bill Raepe and daughters, Doris and Bonnie, until her death in 1912.