THOMAS B. OLIN AND
MARY CUNNINGHAM FAMILY
Olin, was married
to Lydia Moulter on February 2, 1856. She was born in Chemung
and I suppose they were married there which would substantiate
Willard's account of his father leaving New York around 1860.[4]
Thomas B. Olin played the fife and drum at the age of 16 in a
New York division of the Union Army during the Civil War.[5] Thomas
was a farmer when he met and married Mary Cunningham, adopted
daughter of Frank Cunningham of Stanwood, Mecosta Cty, MI. Her
parents died when Mary was just three and all that is known of
her family is that she had two sisters, Lottie and Lillie. Lottie
married a Norris and lived in Michigan and continued to stay in
touch until her death. Mary was placed in foster care with a Mr.
and Mrs. Martin. They were cruel to her and she ran away at 8
years of age to live with her sister Lil. Mary was born with a
cleft palate and there was some concern in those times that this
was an inherited trait and would be passed down. To my knowledge
this was never true. We believe the picture on the right is of
Mary when she was 17 years old. Tom and Mary lived in Austin Township,
Mecosta Cty at least until 1873 as that is the date their son
Florance was born. (On Willard, Emily and Florance's birth certificate
it shows both Tom and Mary's birth place as New York.) There were
many diseases that ravaged the young during those times and I'm
sure that Florance was the victim of one of these diseases. His
sister, Emily contracted polio and survived to old age. However,
it would have been very hard to stay where so much heartache lingered.
It is said in Mecosta County, Michigan that the Austin cemetery
(Olin cemetery) contains somewhere between 20-40 children's graves.
Hardly an Olin family or their neighbor was left untouched by
death. According to Willard's letter, Tom and Mary came in to
the Fridley Station (about 15 miles North of Mpls, MN) on the
Northern Railroad in November 1879[6] . They stayed in Fridley[7]
about three weeks then moved to Dayton, Hennepin Cty, MN where
Willard says he started school. His sister Sadie was born there
in 1880. Apparently the soil was too sandy in Fridley and unsuitable
for farming. I have just recently had access to the 1880 United
States Census and it shows that Tom and Mary were in Wright County,
Minnesota in 1880 also. It shows Mary's birthplace as Vermont
there. This was an interesting clue. I suppose Mary could have
been born in Vermont and come to Michigan where her parents most
likely died. I have set up a separate page to start collecting
information on the Cunningham
family.
Parker Township, Morrison Cty.
On researching the plat book for Morrison Cty during that time
period I have found that a T. Olin and W. Olin owned a 1/4 section
each next to each other and that Willard was correct in the description.
It would seem then that Tom Olin actually homesteaded rather than
Mary. However, the plat drawing was in the year 1892, shortly
before their departure for Staples. The quarter section is divided
into three parts. Half of the section (80 acres) belonging to
T. Olin, one quarter each of the second half (40 acres each) divided
between W. Olin and J.H. Hamilton. My guess is that Mary may very
well have homestead originally and possibly transferred the land
to her husband. Tom then sold 1/4 to another party (Hamilton)
and had the other 1/4 transferred to his son, Willard who by 1892
was 24 years old. In the John Olin Family History, mentioned many
times in the beginning of this history, it shows Thomas Benjamin
Olin, son of Henry Olin and Lydia Corrie as living in Huff, MN.
I visited the Morrison Cty Historical Society and they could not
understand where this "Huff" township came from. However,
as you will see by the copy of the plat drawing I have included
in this history that there is a Huff Post Office. It seems that
a Mr. Huff had bought a substantial piece of property in Parker
Township and became the postmaster. For those of you who are familiar
with Minnesota and/or the Little Falls area, the section that
was homesteaded was in Parker Township and what is now Randall.
Although Randall was considerably closer than the Huff post office,
it was in a different township. Little Falls, though considerably
larger, was entirely too distant to visit on any regular basis,
however, it was the nearest large town and so was often referred
to for locality familiarity when giving a description of their
whereabouts.
In any case, it was here that Henry
Olin and Frank Olin were born, 1883 and 1885 respectively.[8]
In 1892 the family moved to Staples where Tom ran a boarding house.
Sadie attended her first school here. Willard met his future wife,
Ella, here also. Apparently, the Kingston and Sandretzky family
were in this area too. Tom and Mary moved theier family to Grand
Rapids in 1896. This date is given to us from Willard's recollections,
however, Thomas Olin and family is listed as coming to Grand Rapids
in 1894. According to his grandson Otto Olin, Thomas Olin was
an easy-going man that he made the trip from Aitkin to Grand Rapids
via ox cart and that he was suffering from a broken leg at the
time. He built and owned an hotel (Floto Hotel) and amusement
park on Swan Lake in Pengilley which is also in Itasca Cty, MN.
It has been said that the ferris wheel from this amusement park
was handed down for a couple of generations. During the winter
he would peddle toboggan loads of fish to Coleraine. While in
Grand Rapids he built several buildings. Later when Bovey was
being established and built, he moved there, living in a tent
while his house was being built. One day while going around the
point of Pokegama Lake in Grand Rapids he broke his leg and had
to be carried. Later, on in life he was run over by a team of
horses and taken to Mayo but refused surgery. It is said that
he spent the last years of his life in a rocking chair.
Name |
Relation |
Marital Status |
Gender |
Race |
Age |
Birthplace |
Occupation |
Father's Birthplace |
Mother's Birthplace |
| Thomas OLAN | Self | M | Male | W | 36 | NY | Laborer | NY | NY |
| Mary L. OLAN | Wife | M | Female | W | 31 | MI | Keeping House | VT | OH |
| Willard OLAN | Son | S | Male | W | 12 | MI | At School | NY | MI |
| Emmal OLAN | Dau | S | Female | W | 10 | MI | At School | NY | MI |
| Sarah OLAN | Dau | S | Female | W | 10 m | MI | NY | MI |
I know that Sarah (Sadie) was born in Dayton which is in close proximity to Otsego.
