The Lynching of Hans Jakob Olson, 1889: The Story of a Norwegian-American Crime

Abstract

by ODIN W. ANDERSON 6 The Lynching of Hans Jakob Olson , 1889: The Story of a Norwegian'American Crime On Norwegian Sunday evening, immigrant, November Hans Jakob 24, Olson, 1889, 51 a Norwegian immigrant, Hans Jakob Olson, 51 years old, was hanged from the branch of a burr oak that stood outside his log cabin on a small, scrubby farm some four miles from Blair, Wisconsin. A vigilante group, consisting of his fellow Norwegians and one Irishman, had intended only to drive him out of the area, but the plan had failed. Lynching was rare in the growing Middle West, and this event was unique in Norwegian-American history. Its uniqueness and violence warrant describing for the historical record the environment, the people, and the circumstances surrounding it. Blair is in Trempealeau county in the west-central part of the state, halfway between the cities of LaCrosse to the south and Eau Claire to the north, which are eighty miles apart. Around Blair, Wisconsin, now a village of 1,200 people, this gruesome happening has understandably taken on all the qualities and embellishments of legend. The thirty or so men who assembled to drive Hans Jakob Olson from the area have many descendants in Blair and elsewhere. The author is one himself. His grandfather, Ole Anderson, a farmer, 159 Odin W. Anderson was among those arrested for observing the events from a hill overlooking the victim's log cabin.1 Ole Anderson and his family lived hardly a mile from the scene of the lynching, on an adjacent farm. Three brothers of the author 's grandmother were also arrested - Ole L. and Ludwig Olson and Bernt Tennyson, a half-brother. They were young men in their early twenties at the time and lived on a farm nearby. Also, the wife of the victim, Bertha, was the aunt of the author's grandmother. Although the grandmother's maiden name was Olson, she was not related to Hans Jakob. In the main, information on the events leading up to and following the lynching was obtained from the court records of the indictment and the trial, which was held in the county seat at Whitehall. Unfortunately, the trial proceedings were not recorded verbatim, but were summaries of what transpired. Another source was the full play given to the lynching and the trial by the weekly Whitehall Times. Blair did not have a newspaper at that time. Another invaluable source was L. A. Stenholt, a journalist then in La Crosse, who was present during the trial and wrote about it.2 There is also an account by Hans A. Anderson, the prosecuting attorney, which he wrote from memory in 1908. Another source was the author's grandmother, Andrea, Ole Anderson's wife, who often told the story on wintry evenings when the family was assembled in the farm kitchen after the evening chores were done. General background information on the population characteristics of Trempealeau county, the size of the villages, and the economy was obtained from the usual census sources and from an invaluable book on the history of Trempealeau county between 1840 and 1880.3 By 1889, Trempealeau county was a fully matured society with law enforcement agencies, churches, schools, and villages supported by a flourishing crop 160 THE LYNCHING OF HANS JAKOB OLSON agriculture and a budding dairy industry. Virtually all the farm land had been taken up by settlers from Norway , New England, New York, and Poland. The Yankees, as the Norwegians called the New England settlers, were first and they dominated the commercial, legal, and law enforcement agencies of the area. Around Blair, at least, this element was soon outnumbered by land-hungry Norwegian immigrants who arrived between 1850 and 1890. In 1885 the Town of Preston, the township in which Blair is located, had a population of 1,636 (exclusive of the village of Blair) of whom 688 had been born in "Scandinavia," the term used in the Wisconsin Census. Almost all of them were Norwegians. If the offspring of the Norwegian-born residents were counted, it would be reasonable to infer that a clear majority of the population in the Town of Preston were of Norwegian origin. Blair...