TAKEN FROM "UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD" VOLUMES 1-4
James F. Olsen engaged in farming and stock raising at Rochester, was born in Spring City, Utah, February 29, 1876, and is a representative of one of the old families of the state. His parents, Frederick and Matilda (Jensen) Olsen, were natives of Denmark and pioneer settlers of Utah, arriving in the fall of 1857 with a handcart company. They established their home at Ephraim and were afterward called to Monroe, but were there driven out by the hostility of the Indians and returned to Spring City. Mr. Olsen was called to settle Emery County in 1883 and established his home at Ferron, where he passed away in 1906, having for more than a decade survived the mother of James F. Olsen, who departed this life in 1894. Mr. Olsen had seen active service in both the Black Hawk and Walker wars and had passed through all of the difficulties, privations and dangers incident to frontier settlement. He lived to see remarkable changes and at all times bore his part in the work of General transformation. James F. Olsen was only seven years of age when his parents removed to Ferron, where he acquired a common school education. In young manhood he took up the occupation of farming and also did various kinds of work necessary in the settlement of a new county. In 1913 he removed from Ferron to Rochester, where he purchased a good farm property and is now carrying on general agricultural pursuits and cattle raising. His business affairs are wisely and capably conducted and are bringing to him a substantial measure of success. At Ferron, on the 9th of December, 1896, Mr. Olsen was married to Miss Cornelia Wrigley and they had one son, Austin, who was born September 29, 1897. He joined the army December 31, 1917, at Salt Lake City, was at Fort Douglas for two weeks and was then sent to Camp Dix, N.J. and in august, 1918 went to France. He participated in the sanguinary drive in the Argonne forest, in which he was wounded and was in a hospital when the armistice was signed. He was mustered out at Fort Russell, July 15, 1919, having done his full share in America's part in checking German militarism, which was menacing the whole world. Mrs. Cornelia Olsen passed away in 1898, and in 1899 at Ferron, Mr. Olsen wedded Nellie Taylor, who died at the birth of their fourth child, the children of that marriage being: Zina, who was born in 1900; Weldon, in 1902; Ray, in 1904; and Neldon, in 1906. On the 3rd of April, 1913, Mr. Olsen was married to Mrs. Matilda Lowry, a widow who is a daughter of Jens Jensen, a pioneer of Gunnison, where he follows farming. By her former marriage she had three children: Lafonta, and Allen, who are living and Aleda who had passed away. Mr. Olsen is a supporter of democratic principles, but has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and both within and outside of the ranks of that organization he has many friends, his genuine worth as a man and as a citizen being widely recognized.