Merced County Biographies

CARL EDWARD OLSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        The assistant superintendent of the canal system on the West Side with a 
territory extending from Mendota to Crows Landing, a distance of seventy-one 
miles, is Carl Edward Olson, residing on his ranch one mile southwest of Los 
Banos. A native of Sweden he was born in Oland, on January 28, 1870, a son of 
Ole and Christina (Pearson) Olson. His father was a corporal in the Swedish Navy 
and was in the service until he was retired. He came to California in October, 
1913, and now resides in Turlock, and is eighty-four years old. The wife and 
mother died at the age seventy-four. They had seven children: Peter, of Turlock; 
Amanda, deceased; John, of Los Banos; Carl Edward, our subject; Ida, of Turlock; 
Hilda, in Hilmar; and Albert.
        Carl Edward Olson had but little opportunity to get an education and 
when he was sixteen he began earning his own living, working about in his native 
country until 1889. He decided he could better his condition by coming to the 
United States and California was his goal. For a time he stopped in San 
Francisco, then came to Dos Palos in Merced County and secured employment with 
Miller and Lux as a ranch hand. He knew little of the English language, but was 
alert and picked up a practical working knowledge as he went about his daily 
tasks. He was next in the employ of Crocker & Huffman, on the Merced River, for 
a time; and as a diversion he spent four seasons hunting game for the markets of 
the bay cities, and it paid very well. He worked in the harvest fields in the 
summer. In 1895, he went to work for Hans Albertsen, in the hills on the Newman 
ranch, and for four years was steadily engaged; then he spent fifteen months in 
the employ of the San Joaquin-Kings River Canal and Irrigation Co.; later, after 
a harvest season for Albertsen, he took a trip back to his native land, spending 
six months visiting among friends and relatives. Returning to California Mr. 
Olson worked for Mr. Albertsen, for two years, then for John Olson, and in 1904 
he again entered the employ of the San Joaquin-Kings River Canal and Irrigation 
Co., beginning at the bottom and gradually working his way through the various 
positions with the company until he is now the assistant superintendent over 
seventy-one miles of ditches. In 1922, he bought a part of the Midway ranch 
consisting of twenty acres and makes that his home.
        On August 2, 1903, Mr. Olson was married to Miss Anna Lena Albertsen, a 
native of Ero, Denmark; and this union has been blessed by the birth of a son, 
Ray Olson.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 888-889