Olsen, O. A.

O. A. Olsen was born in Flekkefjord, Norway, on May 1, 1879, to Ole Tønneson and Tøbnia Larsen. After completing public school, he immigrated to the United States in 1896, initialing his career as a sawyer working for various lumber companies across California in Humboldt, Siskiyou, Sierra, and Madera counties. In 1904, he relocated to Fresno County to work for the Sanger Lumber Company, eventually ending an eleven-year career in the lumber industry to pursue viticulture.

Settling near Sanger, Mr. Olsen achieved financial success by buying, improving, and selling multiple vineyard properties, including an eighty-acre ranch on which he raised vines and alfalfa. Married in Sanger to Sabina Garbick of Austria, with whom he had three children—Alfred Sigmund, Alice Sabina, and Herman Thomas—he became a naturalized citizen in 1901 and served as a trustee for the Granville School District. An active member of the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers Association, he established himself as a prominent agricultural leader twelve miles east of Fresno.