WILLARD E. OLIN FAMILY

None of Willard's children are alive, however most of their descendants are. Therefore, I am only using names and no dates for Willard's grandchildren. I would be one of Willard's great-grandchildren.

Willard was born May 7, 1868 in Austin Township, Mecosta Cty, MI to Thomas B. and Mary L. (Cunningham) Olin. Willard's family was living in Staples in 1892 when he and Ellen Jane McGillivray met. She was born on August 10, 1876 in Port Arthur, Canada, and died September 18, 1923 in Duluth, St. Louis Cty, MN. Ellen was the daughter of John McGillivray and Mary Jane Hudson. Willard and Ella were married on October 22, 1893, in Grand Rapids, MN. Willard died December 12, 1947 in Minneapolis, Hennepin Cty, MN.

What has been passed down orally through the generations is that Ella and Willard loved each other very much and she married him in spite of the objections of her family. My grandmother, Vivian Bailey Olin(12) who was her daughter-in-law (wife of Charles Olin) remembers Ella fondly. She said that she was an exceptionally beautiful woman with long black hair and that her pictures did not do her justice. She was especially sweet and kind and a very hard worker. Unfortunately, she died in her forties, from complications as a result of two miscarriages. Both of these pictures are from her funeral.

Ellen's son Otto Olin remembered this touching story:

When he was about 10, three or sometimes four times a week his mother would bake bread for the family. The bread would be mixed and set to rise during the early evening hours and would be baked after the family was in bed. The oven was not large enough to hold all the loaves at one time, so when one batch was done another would be placed in the oven. Otto remembered these times fondly as he was the only child allowed to stay up with mother because he was the only one who always got up in the morning without effort from mother. He and mother would sometimes play games. Or sometimes mother had sewing to do. At that time of the night she had patience and in the quietness, she taught Otto how to use the sewing machine. This is how he learned to sew, which later became his lifetime career in furniture upholstering. However, the highlight of the evening was sampling the hot, fragrant loaves as they came out of the oven!

Oral history has it that Willard worked at Kingston's lumber yard as a lad. Though I have found that the Tom Olin family had a homestead in Little Falls for most of Willard's younger years, the information about the lumber yard in Grand Rapids seems to imply that they may have not always stayed on the property there. In fact, some of their children were born at either location during the same span of years.

Willard was a kind gentleman though a strict father and a teetotaler. Not a drop of liquor was allowed in the Olin home. He also possessed so many useful skills. He was able to build a house from the ground up. He was an excellent carpenter and mechanically inclined. He taught many of these skills to his sons and so they were never without the means to make their way in the world. He was also musically talented and taught all of his children to play at least one instrument.

Willard was an opportunist and bought a lot in Bovey, MN. He was led to believe that a main road would go past this lot and he proceeded, with the help of his father, Tom Olin, his brother-in-law Billy Sandretzky, and others, to build a two-story building. The upper floor was for living quarters and the lower floor for a grocery-drygoods store. This was not to be-the town planners chose a different route and as a result, Willard's grocery store was forced to close. The family lived upstairs of the store and as they owned the building, they soon set up a shop for Ella in the storefront where she did tailoring, laundry and pressing. In the fall and early winter, Willard and his sons Charlie, Otto and Vern would go out in the woods to cut firewood for household use. They had a hand saw or 2-man saw and they would borrow a team of horses and sled. They left in the morning and would first set a dozen snares for rabbits and would clean the rabbits when they got home. At noon they would check to see if there were rabbits in the snares and then reset them. At noon they build a fire and ate their lunch and warmed up. Then they would go back to work, cutting, trimming and hauling wood. At home they had a saw and gasoline engine to cut up the wood. The family ate a lot of rabbit stew and fried the rabbit like chicken. The picture taken in 1908 was in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and consisted of 7 deer, a couple wolves and a moose.

Later, Willard worked in the iron ore mine (1906-07). He earned $1 a day, six days a week to support a family of five children. A lot of foreigners were imported to work in the mines, mostly Austrians and Finns. Willard's job was dumping train loads of dirt brought up from the mines as the earth was scraped and dug out to get to the ore. The loads were dumped sideways and 6 or 7 men were required to push from the opposite side to dump each load. Willard's ingenuity soon prompted him to devise a way where one man could stand on the side and with a lever pull the load towards him and thus tilt the load. Sometime during this period, the family ran a roller-skating rink.

Willard Olin played the violin and was an accomplished "fiddler" much in demand at barn dances and other festive occasions for many miles around. (Vivian Bailey Olin, remembers him coming to play at her school in Meadowlands, MN). Willard and Ella McGillivray Olin also owned a dance hall in Bovey. While Ella took tickets at the door, the entire family orchestra played from the stage. Charles Olin played the violin, mandolin, piano, and accordion. Vern Olin played coronet and sax, Camilla Olin and Rena Olin played piano, Otto Olin played sliding trombone and Delma Olin played drums. Little Vivian Olin, just four years old, wore a pretty red dress and matching ribbon in her black hair. She would dance and sing the song, "All Aboard For Blanket Bay" (....won't be back till the break of day.) Camilla won awards on the piano for her flamboyant style, while Rena was more accomplished (she often played the chords her father had taught her, even up to days before her death). As time marched on new technology was hard to avoid and one day the boys went out and traded their instruments for a Victrola. When Willard came home and saw what they had done, he sunk into his chair and cried. It broke his heart that he had spent so many years teaching his children to play music and now they (as was popular at that time) preferred to listen to a record player. Picture on right is of Ella and her daughter, Camilla.

Travel between Grand Rapids and Bovey was by horse and buggy. The buggy had no top and was pulled by two horses. There was the driver's seat and 2 or 3 rows of seats in the back. For heat, stones were heated for a couple of days so that they were warm all the way through. Then they were placed on the floor of the buggy and covered with rugs and blankets to keep the heat in longer. The blankets then would be pulled up over the knees of the passengers. The first car in Bovey was 1912. Otto was approximately 10 years old and remembers clearly the excitement and enthusiasm as the whole town turned out to watch the car as it went up and down Main Street and expertly turned circles in the intersection.

In Autumn several families would pack up wagons with tents, food supplies, jars, oil stoves, and children and then would travel to the Big Woods up North. The men and children would pick blueberries and the women would stay at camp cleaning, cooking and canning the berries. They would stay about a week. There were a lot of berries and the families divided equally. This was a great outing which the families enjoyed and looked forward to each year.

In 1916 Willard and family moved to Duluth where he had a job as a carpenter on the railroad (Duluth-Mesabi and Northern Line). He built bridges for the railroad until he was caught picking up the extra coal that had fallen on the tracks. They would rather it was wasted then used to warm a large family of one of their employees! He worked on the railroad in 1918 during the great fire that raged through Northeastern Minnesota. The fire moved so quickly and the people just couldn't get away. The railroad companies did their best to take away as many people as possible. Tragically, Willard witnessed firsthand the bodies of the smoke inhalation victims that lay strewn along the tracks. In 1925 Willard moved to Minneapolis for his remaining years. Willard and Ellen had the following children (bolded):

Camilla Mae Olin born October 2, 1894 in Staples, Todd Cty, MN; died September 15, 1978 in Mpls, MN, Hennepin Cty, MN. She was a beautiful woman and dressed flamboyantly. She bought a boarding house and carefully invested her money over the years. She was very independent and was considered by most to be the family matriarch after the death of her mother. She took on the responsibility of keeping the family together, planning social events, and keeping everyone aware of upcoming weddings, etc. She especially enjoyed going on cruises up until her death. She was a strong, religious, creative and hard-working woman. She married John Peterson (Jack) and they had one son:

Elmer John Peterson b: September 25, 1928 in Milwaukee,WI and d: November 11, 1993 in Crystal, Hennepin, MN.

Charles Edward Olin b: August 17, 1896 in Grand Rapids, Itasca Cty, MN; d: July 13, 1967 in Mpls, MN[1] ; m: May 14, 1918 Grand Rapids, Itasca Cty, MN to Vivian Frances Bailey b: August 1, 1902 in Duluth, MN; d: August 27, 1992 Henning, Ottertail Cty, MN. Charles owned the first taxi cab (1914 Ford) in Bovey, was a roofer and a veteran of WWI[2 ]. This was my maternal grandfather and (see pictures on the left and right.)

Mary Pauline Olin (Paulina) b: September 27, 1898; d: February 7, 1904 of Pneumonia in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.[3]

Rena Esther Olinwas b: June 18, 1900 in Staples, MN. She married Joseph John Andler b: Duluth ca. 1890. She died December 23, 1987 in Mpls, MN. Rena left home when she was 18 and moved to Minneapolis with her brother Charlie and his wife Vivian. She had a job in a candy factory. Through some clever investing she was able to purchase quite a bit of rental property and owned a mansion on Mount Curve in Minneapolis. She was a strong, independent woman. Through her marriage to Joe Andler she had one daughter:

June Alyda May Andler b: April 24, 1920 in Mpls, MN, deceased.

Otto Elmer Olin b: April 12, 1902 Grand Rapids, MN, d: August 29, 1985 Mpls, MN, m: Edith Sommers May 25, 1921 Duluth, MN. Otto is so fondly remembered by his family. He has a large number of descendants and many have inherited his humor and zest for life. He was an upholsterer in Grand Rapids for years and people still speak of his fine work. Edith died May 18, 1993 at 91 years. On December 19th when Edith turned 90 years old, this account of her life with Otto was given:

"Edith worked as a live-in housemaid for Dr. Bettenhouse in Duluth. On her days off, she and her girlfriends would take the streetcar (five cents) out to Lester Park, an amusement park on the east end of Duluth. It was while there strolling around enjoying the concerts, rides, etc. that she met Otto Olin, who would go there with friends and cousin Bill Kingsley (don't know who this is). After they married they lived with Otto's parents, who were renting a big house on Park Point. At that time Vern, Delma, Vivian and little Gerry were still living at home. Father and Vern worked sawing and delivering wood; Vivian worked as usher at Sunbeam Theater. Edith and Otto built a little house up in the Heights; however due to pregnancy complications, Edith stayed with Camilla down in town, Woodland, to be near the hospital, where Ellen was born on November 6, 1923.

Jobs became scarce in Duluth even before the Wall Street crash in 1929. So from 1927-1934 Edith and Otto, along with the Olin family members, moved restlessly seeking work from Duluth to Milwaukee, then Chicago, back to Milwaukee, Mpls, MN, and finally to New Brighton, where Edith and Otto settled. They separated in 1942, Edith joined the Army as a WAC during World War II, retiring as a Master Sergeant in 1945."[4 ]

Otto and Edith had two children:

Ellen Jane Olin

Robert Lee Olin b: June 1, 1926 in Duluth, died October 30, 1996

Otto Olin remarried to Elizabeth Elaine Scheer Osgard and had 3 children.

Vern Olin was b: July 29, 1903 in Grand Rapids, MN, d: April 10, 1963 in Mpls, MN and m: Myna Skoglund and they both worked at Land-O-Nod (mattresses) in Mpls, MN. They had one son:

Willard Jack Olin (Jackie) b: March 30, 1928 in Minneapolis, Hennepin, MN, d: December 1975 St. Cloud, MN, m: Lois. He worked at the St. Cloud Reformatory.

Vivian Ellen Olin was b: January 10, 1906 Grand Rapids, MN. She d: May 9, 1991 Mpls, MN.

Delma Wayne Olin b: June 15, 1909 in Grand Rapids, MN, d: February 23, 1984 in Mpls, MN. He m: Clara Lange. He was a construction contractor having built many fine buildings in Minneapolis including a Bridgeman's Icecream Parlor in Richfield, MN. Delma also built apartment buildings for his sister, Rena Olin Andler.

Geraldine Marie Olin was b: January 15, 1916 in Bovey, Itasca Cty, MN, d: November 1, 1997 in Slinger, WI. She m. Robert Heyden.

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