Material Type

Manuscript

Date Range

1880-1940

Physical Description

approximately 64 cm

Physical Condition

Fair

History Biographical

The following two passages were written by the donor of the Martin and Alma Olson Fonds, Mr. Norman Olson. “The Goodbrand Hoard is a collection of letters and other documents assembled by my grandparents, Alma Olson (nee Olander) and her husband Martin Olson. There are about 1,000 items, mostly in Swedish, some in Norwegian and a few in English. They cover the period from 1880 to 1940. These I used for the family history I wrote, Memory Leaves, a copy of which is included in the collection. Most of the letters were originally addressed to Alma or Martin at some time during their lives. A few are letters they addressed to their children. Alma was born in Sweden in 1867 and Martin was born the same year in Norway. Their lives followed different courses until they met in Lethbridge about 1898. They married there in 1900. They died only a year apart, Alma in 1944 and Martin in 1945. For the last forty years of their lives they lived on their homestead at Clear Lake, ten miles east of Stavely, Alberta. Alma was born and grew up in Stockholm. When she was in her early teens her family moved to Braenudden, a small town on one of the islands east of the city. Her parents, Carl Albert and Beata Sofia Olander had five children. Alma was the eldest, then Claus, Constance, Gideon and Ellen. In 1886 Alma moved back to Stockholm and worked in the home of Nils August Anderson and his wife. Two years later Mrs. Anderson died and a year after that Alma married her employer. Their first son, Simon, was born in 1891. Two years later Nils, Alma and young Simon emigrated to Canada and settled in Golden, B.C. The following years their second child, a girl, Esteem was born. The next year, 1895, Alma’s younger brother, Gideon, emigrates and joins them in Golden. Late in 1896 Nils, who by this time has changed his family name to ‘Freestone’, decides to move to Lethbridge. Alma, the children and Alma’s brother, Gideon join him there the next year. Two years later, 1899, there are big changes in the family. In January of that year, Alma’s father, Carl Albert, died. As their home belonged to the company he worked for the family couldn’t continue to live in their home at Braenudden. So the widow, Beata Sofia, and her remaining children, Claus, Constance and Ellen decide to join Alma and Gideon in Lethbridge. They arrived in September but before that Alma’s husband, Nils, had died.” [source: Explanatory note accompanying the fonds donation] “Martin was born in western Norway in what must be one of the most beautiful areas of the world. He grew up at Hoghjelle, a grouping of four small farms on the side of a deep mountain valley … Grandfather’s full name was Martinus Olseon Hoghjelle and this was the name he used when he emigrated to America or specifically to Minnesota in 1886. His signature two years later has become Martin Olson Hoghjelle. Soon the last part will be dropped due to pronunciation difficulties in an Anglophone milieu. Martin was the oldest of five children. The family lived on one of the four small farms, ‘Utigard’ … According to family lore Martin spent two seasons fishing in the Lofoten Islands off the north coast of Norway and savings from that financed his emigration when he was nineteen. He first settled in Minnesota where his mother’s brother, Jakob Ronneberg, and his family lived. In 1895 Martin moved to Lethbridge where he found work in the coal mines. It was here that he met Alma and they married in 1900. Together they pursued the classic dream of many turn-of-the-century immigrants, to own land. The first attempt was in partnership with Alma’s brother, Gideon, and a Swedish immigrant, Axel Sundquist. They purchased land southwest of Lethbridge near Leavett. This was later abandoned in favor of a homestead at Clear Lake, east of Stavely. It was the Clear Lake homestead that Martin and Alma raised their family and spent most of their life together.” [source: Memory Leaves - A Family History]

Language

Norwegian

Swedish

English

Acquisition Source

Olson, Norman 411 - 10308 114 Street NW Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2X2

Custodial History

After Martin Olson's death in 1945, his son Andrew took possession of the letters and documents kept by his father and his mother. Andrew Olson died on 3 January 1987. The letters were passed on to Andrew's sister Mrs. Mary Goodbrand by Mary's son John. Mary Goodbrand (nee Olson) died on 4 November 2000. Mary's son John Goodbrand contacted his cousin Norman Olson - the donor - and passed the letters and documents to him.

Scope and Content

Approximately 1,000 letters, invoices, receipts and other documents received or written by Martin Olson and his wife Alma over the course of their lives. The letters are from family members and friends, while the invoices and receipts are from businesses with whom the Olsons dealt. Some of the letters were written by Martin and Alma Olson to their children after they grew up and left home. The letters deal with everyday news and events of interest to the writers. The fonds also includes a brief explanatory note written by the donor, a brief family tree of the Olson and Olander families compiled by the donor, and a copy of the donor's book "Memory leaves - A Family History".

Notes

Dates provided by the donor.

Access Restrictions

Public Access

Accession No.

20081043000

Collection

Archive

Less detail