Aaron & Maren Olson

OLSON JORGENSEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/13/2010 at 17:04:31

Woodbury County History 1984

Aaron and Maren Olson
By Doris Christensen

Aaron Olson was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1839. He received his education in foreign languages in a college in Olso, Norway. In 1865, he decided to journey to the new world. After a three-month voyage, he landed first at Quebec, Canada, and then went to Muskeegan, Michigan, in 1866. In 1867, with a group of pioneers, he traveled by oxen and covered wagon to western Iowa. He arrived there in 1867 where he was employed as paymaster by the Sioux City Pacific Railroad Company, which was at that time building the first railroad between Council Bluffs and Sioux City. He made his headquarters at the Holman Hotel in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

Maren Jorgensen was born in 1845 at Langeland, Denmark, where she received an education. At the age of twenty-four she left Langeland and came alone to the United States. After she arrived in the United States, she had her passage money to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, stolen from her, so she resourcefully sold her hair in order to secure the passage money to reach Sergeant Bluff. She had heard there was a Danish Settlement there. At the W P Holman residence she was united in marriage to Aaron Olson in 1871. Shortly after their marriage, they moved onto a farm southwest of Sloan, Iowa. This land had previously been purchased by Mr Olson for six dollars per acre. They built a new home and retired to Sloan, in 1908, and they later celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1921 in Sloan. Mr Olson died in 1922 and Maren died in 1926.

Mr and Mrs Aaron Olson were the parents of seven children. Ella, the eldest daughter, was graduated from the Sergeant Bluff High School in 1889 with the school’s second graduating class. She taught school for fifteen years in Woodbury County and was united in marriage to Charles Ayers. At the time of her death, in 1919, she was Post-mistress at Winnebago, Nebraska.

George Olson married Claudia Shannon of Sloan, daughter of Mr and Mrs Jim Shannon of Sloan. They lived on a farm near Sloan for several years, then moved to Foley, Minnesota, where he resided until his death in 1923. They had three children, Herbert, Harold and Ernest.

Christina married Robert T McFarland and resided on a farm near Whiting, Iowa. They later moved to Whiting. They had four children, William, Frances, Hazel and Harold.

Cecelia was united in marriage to Flay A Woods, Sloan, on December 3, 1900. They had nine children, Marie, Edna, Marian, Faye, Dorothy, Warren, Johnny, Everett and Merle.

Anna, deceased at the age of three.

Marie, deceased at the age of twenty-two years.

Rudolph, whose story is given separately.