by Nancy Besonen

   Before and after Henry Ford, Oscar Olsen made his mark in Pequaming.
   An old newspaper photo brought in last week by Olsen’s granddaughter, Jodie Fisher of L’Anse, brings this Pequaming pioneer back to the forefront. Olsen worked primarily in the woods, but was also a gifted musician who played and taught dancing at Pequaming High School.
   Olsen arrived on Pequaming’s shores in 1891 from his homeland of Fredrickstadt, Norway. He was employed by Charles Hebard & Sons Lumber Co. from 1891 until 1923 when the property was sold to the Ford Motor Company, then worked for Ford until the Pequaming schools closed in 1942. 
   Most of the population of Pequaming relocated after the mill and schools closed, but Olsen stayed. He and his wife raised a family of eight children there, and he had lived in the same house since 1895, paying a dollar a year rent when the Hebard company operated the mill.
   Vernon Olsen of L’Anse was born in his grandfather’s house, and remembers him well. Vernon’s family lived with Oscar until Vernon was three or four, and moved back once for a year. Along the way, the child forged a close relationship with his grandfather in Pequaming.
   “I knew him better than my father,” Vernon said. “I spent more time with him, because my dad was working.”
   Vernon said his grandfather worked as a lumber scaler and log scaler. Oscar shared stories of his logging days with his grandson, including one that he luckily lived to tell about. 
   Oscar was working at a logging camp beyond the Mouth of the Huron one stormy November when provisions ran out, and the supply boat from Pequaming couldn’t get through. The loggers survived for awhile on fresh venison, then finally sent Oscar and a partner on foot for provisions.
   “They sent my grandfather and an Indian fella to Pequaming to tell them they needed food!” Vernon said. “They got to Skanee by noon, then Townline Road later on. Then the Indian said he knew a shortcut through the woods to Keweenaw Bay.”
   Daylight faded, and Oscar’s walking partner lit a pine knot to use as a torch while they struggled through the woods. Late into the night the men finally emerged near the site of the Bella Vista, and provisions were sent to the loggers soon after.
   Woods work put food on the table, but music fed Oscar’s soul. Vernon said his grandfather was raised with music, and played in his family’s band and orchestra. Originally a flutist, Oscar also taught himself to play the violin, viola, cello, clarinet and bass horn. 
   He completed a correspondence course in orchestration, and went on to write four full orchestras, an overture, several waltzes, schottishes and polkas. Vernon said his grandfather also wrote many marches, all late into the evenings after a full day of work.

Oscar Olsen

   “He would be up all night writing music, on top of work,” Vernon said. “It took a toll on his health, but he said he had to do it.”
   In the summer of 1933 Henry Ford made an offer Oscar couldn’t refuse: teaching music and dance at the Pequaming schools. Oscar played the fiddle for his young performers while his sister, Gerda, accompanied on the piano. 
   Merle Ahlsen of L’Anse was a 1942 graduate of Pequaming High School, and danced years ago under Oscar’s direction. Ahlsen was also among a group of dancers who traveled to Dearborn to perform for Ford.
   “I wasn’t quite 11 years old at the time,” Ahlsen said. “ I went from kindergarten through 12th grade in Pequaming. I’m one of the few, I guess, who went all through school in Pequaming.”
   Ahlsen said the dance troupe performed at special events throughout the UP, and that the boys wore green knickers and black jackets, “like we were ‘old time’ people.” And whenever Oscar wanted to teach the class a new dance step, he’d take Ahlsen as his partner.
   “I loved to dance!” Ahlsen said.
   Fisher has some recollections about her grandfather, too, including the fact he would pay his violin for Henry Ford on the auto magnate’s occasional visits to Pequaming. If dancers got out of step, she said, Oscar would help them recover their rhythm with a gentle tap on the head from his violin bow.

   Olsen taught dance until the Pequaming School closed, but his retirement was short-lived. Vernon said Henry Ford had another school in Big Bay, and once a week a Ford Motor Co. driver was dispatched to Pequaming to pick up Oscar and Gerda, then take them to Big Bay for another day of making music.