with his three sons, making his way to Chicago. Two years later they were joined by two daughters of the family. Andrew Olson spent three years in Chicago and afterward went to Goodhue county, Minnesota, where he secured a claim. He was a carpenter by trade and followed that pursuit which brought him immediate returns for his labor. His last days were spent with his children and he died in Story county at the home of his son Jeremiah in 1877. His family numbered five children of whom Ole J. Olson is the youngest. The others are : Marcalius, of Story City ; Julia, who is the widow of Abel Olson, a resident of Story county, living southeast of Roland; Jeremiah, who is living in Howard township ; and Malinda, who became the wife of John Evanson and died in Roland.
Ole J. Olson was a lad of eleven years when he arrived in Chicago and almost immediately he sought employment, which he secured in lathing houses. At fourteen years of age he went to Wisconsin, where he began working by the month as a farm hand, and in 1863 he came to Story county,, Iowa, where he invested the money that he had saved from his earnings in a tract of one hundred acres of prairie land a mile west and a mile and a half north of Roland. With characteristic energy he began the development and improvement of this place, carefully tilled his fields and in time brought the farm under a high state of cultivation. As the years passed he also added to his holdings until he is now the owner of three hundred and twenty acres in the home place on sections 3 and 10, Howard township, while his wife also owns ninety acres elsewhere in the same township. Year by year he carried on the work of the farm and annually gathered good crops, for his methods of cultivating the fields were practical. He secured modern machinery to facilitate his work and introduced modern improvements upon the farm, where he lived until a year ago, when he retired from active business life with a substantial competence and is now living in Roland.
On the 11th of July, 1868, Mr. Olson was united in marriage to Miss Helen Hill, who was born in La Salle county, Illinois, on the 18th of December, 1848. She lived for ten years in. Kendall county, Illinois, and then came to Story county in 186o. Her parents were Henry and Christina (Erickson) Hill, both natives of Norway. They came to the United States in June, 1848. The father had previously spent five years in this country, after which he returned to Norway, was married and remained a resident of his native land through the succeeding two years. He then took his wife to Illinois in 1848 and his death occurred in that state. A year after his death Mrs. Hill was married, in December, 185o, to Knudt Thompson, and in 186o they removed to Iowa, their remaining days being passed in Story county.
By the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Olson were born eight children. The first two were named John Henry and both died in infancy. The others of the family are as follows: Julia Ann, who died at the age of five years; Christina Amelia, who became the wife of Martin Johnson and passed