Nels Olson, one of the prosperous residents in that fine agricultural district around North Topeka, his home being on Rural Route No. 3, had been a citizen of Kansas for more than thirty years.
He was born in the province or district of Skane, Sweden, December 18, 1866. His father, Ole Johnson, was born in the same state in 1828, and always followed the vocation of farming. He was a prosperous man in his country, and enjoyed the respect and esteem of his neighbors for his business ability and the wisdom with which he directed his affairs. He was often consulted on matters of importance, and wielded more than an ordinary influence in his community. He was very liberal as a provider for his children and family, and his sons and daughters have a lasting respect for his virtuous and upright career.
Nels Olson was one of a large family of nine children. In 1884 he came with a brother and sister to America and located in Kansas, establishing his first home at Waterville in Marshall County. In 1889 his brother John went out to Denver, where he died soon afterward of typhoid fever. Anna, the sister who came with him to Kansas, married Morey Gilbert, of Manhattan. A still younger brother Swan, is in the grocery business at Topeks.
Nels Olson was eighteen years of age when he came to America, and in the meantime had been reared and educated in his native land. He had followed farming during most of his active career, and in 1901 he removed to Shawnee County. He owned twenty-one acres of land and is engaged principally in the dairy business.
In 1888 he married Miss Emma Schaubel, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Schaubel family came to America from Germany many years ago, and one of the facts of the immigration well remembered by the family is that it required six months to make the voyage. Nels Olson and wife are the parents of seven children, two sons and five daughters, their names being: Lester N., Clarence, Ole, Elna, Anna, Bertha and Ruth. The son Lester is now in the nursery business near Phoenix, Arizona. Elna is the wife of Edwin Carlson, a farmer in Washington County, Kansas. Bertha is still in high school at Oakland, and the daughter Ruth will soon enter upon her high school course.