OCT. 4-6 PART 6: LARS MATT OLSON LEAVES ALASKA

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL

100 YEARS LATER

by Doug Capra © 2018-19

Part 6 Lars Matt Olson Leaves Alaska

Oct. 2-5, 2019

ABOVE – Olson on Fox Island feeding his goats. Photo by Rockwell Kent, courtesy of the Rockwell Kent Gallery, Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

BELOW – Seward painter Susan Swiderski’s view of Fox Island from the shore of Seward. Published here with the artist’s permission. For more paintings and information about this artist, follow this link.

Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska was published in March 1920 to coincide with a show of Rockwell Kent’s paintings. A month later, after a busy stay in New York City for his Alaska painting exhibition and his book’s publication, Rockwell Kent wrote to Lars Olson. By this time Olson had agreed to join Kent in Vermont.

Arlington, Vermont

April 6, 1920

Dear Olson

         I am ashamed of having let so long a time go by without writing to you. All of us have been away in New York for over a month and it has been so busy a time that I could scarcely get around to doing the things that I wanted to do. In the first place I held my exhibition there – I sent you an announcement of it – and then my book came out. Both were made the occasion of lots of entertainment being given us so that we just (lived) on our friends and the good times they gave us. The exhibition from every side but money was a great success. The gallery was crowded all the time. I had lots of good notices in the papers and found many enthusiastic admirers of my work. But it was an unfortunate season – just the time of the income-tax returns – and no one was spending money.

         I have mailed you a copy of the book. Don’t you think it’s a beauty? It seems to be selling well and it has received a number of very good reviews. You are yourself a large part of the book and your name appears quite frequently in the papers. Well – anyhow we have put Fox Island on the map.

{The copy of Wilderness Kent sent to Olson – no doubt personally inscribed to the old Swede – has disappeared. Olson did bring the book with him to Vermont but – as Kent relates in an August 1920 letter to Carl Zigrosser, He {Olson}has just had me write a letter to the Seward lodge of the Pioneers of Alaska presenting them with the copy of Wilderness that I gave Olson. He would not hear of a new copy being sent them. I have sought out Pioneer records in Alaska to learn what happened to that book, but I have had no luck.}

         Now about Fox Island. A friend of mine who has influence at Washington says that if you put in my hands all the papers pertaining to your homestead claim he’ll see if he can’t get your title fixed up. I think that’s worth doing, don’t you? So bring them along with you, everything and we’ll attend to it.

         When are you coming? Isn’t it about time to start. To tell the truth I have been afraid I’d be too late to reach you if I wrote now – and I have half expected to get a wire from you for funds. One thing I neglected to do – that is to send you typewritten directions for coming here. I’ll do it now – or rather, since I have no typewriter, I’ll print it out for you.

         How are the Emswilers? I hope Charlie’s eye gets entirely well. The good one – I mean. I suppose there’s no hope for the other.

         I hear frequently from Otto. He is back in Germany.

         I’ve just printed out your page of directions. I think you’ll have no trouble at all.

         Come along soon, my dear old friend, and be sure of the heartiest welcome here that you ever had in your life.

                  Faithfully yours – Rockwell Kent

Otto Boehm and Charlies Emswiler were Kent's new friends in Alaska. He met Boehm in October 1918. In Wilderness he wrote: “We spent our evening with the German man. We have planned to signal back and forth from Seward, particularly to send me the new of peace. If I can distinguish, with glasses, a high-powered electric light that he will show from a house on the highest point in town, then, by means of the Morse code with which am furnished and which he knows, I’ll receive messages on appointed days…To-night Rockwell and I went a quarter of a mile down our beach to a point that commands a view up the bay to Seward and lighted a bonfire there. Boehm, the German, was regarding us, we presume, through a telescope. On Sunday night, if it is clear, we are to look for his light. The difficulty will be to distinguish it from others. This signaling was not a wise move. It resulted in people thinking there might be a German spy on Fox Island signaling to U-boats. Boehm later journeyed back east and was with Kent in Vermont. He maintained contact with Kent and later worked for him at his Asgard, his dairy farm in Upstate New York. They later had a falling out and ended up in court. There is a large file of correspondence between the two in the Kent files at the Archives of American Art. I have yet to untangle that story.

BELOW – Charles Elmswiler was another frontiersman and Olson’s friend. Guide, hunter, trapper, fisherman, fox farmer, prospector. He often stopped stopped at Fox Island on his way in and out of Resurrection Bay. Kent writes of him in Wilderness. Photo courtesy of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society.

On January 9, 1920, Thomas W. Hawkins and Olson sold the fox farm’s goods, including foxes, pens, corrals, cabins, tools, utensils and other equipment for only one dollar to Thomas Tessier and Charles Christensen of Seward. They owned a fox farm about 25 miles north of Seward along Kenai Lake. Attorney L.V. Ray witnessed the document of transfer from the Third Judicial Division of the Territory of Alaska. Olson had been ill about this time, reportedly a slight stroke – and this may have been one reason for closing the fox farm. With the war and the draft on, and with high wages for those men not serving, Hawkins found it difficult to find any young men willing to caretake a fox farm. 

BELOW – Hawkins and Olson couldn’t sell the federal land upon which he fox farm sat. Olson couldn’t even homestead it. But they could sell all the animals and equipment. This is the bill of sale, to another fox farm about 25 miles north of Seward on Kenai Lake. Source: City of Seward Records.

BELOW – Kent sent this telegram to Olson – ironically, on the same day the fox farm was sold. He mentions Otto Boehm. Kent file. Archives of American Art.

Once the fox farm closed, without a job and in ill health, Olson decided to join Rockwell Kent and his family in Vermont. Word got out in Seward and the local chapter of the Pioneers of Alaska (called Igloos) held a benefit dance on June 9, 1920. Announcing the benefit, the Seward Gateway refers to Olson as one of the old timers of this section, and notes that Mr. Olson wants to go outside and being short of the needful {funds}, the Pioneers are going to help him out. The newspaper published six short articles within a week about the dance, observing that everybody seems anxious to help him out, and a big gathering is assured this worthy cause. On the day of the dance the paper wrote: Lars M. Olson...has been in Alaska for years and like many other pioneers has remained with the country through prosperity and slump. Now he is getting well along in years and desires to go to the states. The Pioneers always assist in any worthy object, especially where a Pioneer is concerned... Olson may have been a strange character to some in Seward, but it’s clear that his presence was symbolic. In an era when Alaska was modernizing as the Government Railroad was being built – Olson stood for the real frontier Alaska that was quickly disappearing. After the dance, the Gateway reported: The attendance at the dance was large, citizens, soldiers, officers and members of the crew of the coast guard cutter Algonquin all having a splendid time.

ABOVE – Built in 1898, U.S.S. Algonquin – named after the Native American tribe – was a 205-foot First Class Cutter in the U.S. Revenue Service. In 1915, with the Great War raging in Europe, she was ordered to enforce U.S. neutrality laws. By this time, she was part of the U.S. Coast Guard. When the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, she was transferred to the Navy. In 1919 she was transferred back to the Treasury Department. By 1920, while the Algonquin is in Seward, she was patrolling Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Alaska coal development is still a big issue. Many Navy and Coast Guard ships visited ports like Seward seeking locations for a coaling station. Their arrivals were big occasions and Seward usually planned dances, parades and concerts around the port calls. Photo Source

The benefit earned Olson $208.05, but Brown & Hawkins – specifically Thomas W. Hawkins -- added some extra to bring the total to $358.05. That would be worth about $4700.00 today. None of the newspaper articles mention the Kent's visit to Fox Island, nor do they mention the book Wilderness, with Olson as one of its main characters. Again, no mention that he would be living with Rockwell Kent and his family. This is indeed strange, because most probably knew that Olson had no connections with Vermont and the East Coast. Why Vermont? What would be there for him? This is the kind of cryptic story one often finds in small-town newspapers of the period. Though this information wasn’t included in the article – purposely left out – everyone in town most likely knew Olson was going to stay with Rockwell Kent. Olson have would have told this to his friends, and words spreads quickly in a small town like Seward.

ABOVE – Patricia (Ray)Williams. She is highlighted along with several other prominent Alaskans in a photo spread from Dec. 21, 1934 issue of the Alaska Weekly.

An old timer from Seward and a friend of mine, Pat (Patsy Ray) Williams told me an interesting story. She was born in Valdez in 1909, and at age nine months she moved to Seward and lived here most of her life. In 1926 at age 17 she attended the Alaska Agricultural College in Fairbanks (now the University of Alaska). She died in 2014 at age 104. Wilderness had been published in March 1920, three months before the Olson benefit articles appeared in the Seward Gateway. It’s significant that Rockwell Kent’s name isn’t mentioned, since he had stayed with Olson over the fall and winter of 1918-1919. After the late March 1919 controversy just before he left Seward, Kent’s name was still anathema to some in Seward, especially the editor of the Seward Gateway. Though many in town knew of Wilderness, it was not acknowledged openly. I find no reference to the book in the local newspaper.

Pat was completely unaware of Rockwell Kent’s book, Wilderness, until she got to college. Apparently -- though the book was known and appreciated by some in Seward -- for many years it remained an embarrassing reminder of the March 1919 controversy. And the business community couldn’t have been happy with Kent’s comment about Seward in Chapter VI, Excursion: Seward’s a tradesman town and tradesmen’s views prevail – narrow reactionary thought on modern issues and a trembling concern at the menace of organized labor. Many also noted his cryptic remark at the end of the Preface: Deliberately I have begun this happy story far out in Resurrection Bay; -- again dropped its peaceful thread on the forlorn threshold of the town. Seward was the “forlorn town” mentioned in the book’s introduction. Kent’s peace could not be found, he writes, in the town but only far away on Fox Island. When the Literary Review article came out in June 1919, Kent referred  to Seward as “the town,” not mentioning its name. Some people in Seward maintained an ambivalent if not antagonistic attitude toward Rockwell Kent.

Olson was different. He was acknowledged as one of the oldest sourdoughs still alive in the territory – and a member of the Pioneers of Alaska. Founded in Nome in 1907, the Pioneers was originally open only to white men who had entered Alaska before 1900. The Seward chapter was founded in 1913 and Olson probably joined when he came to town two years earlier. There were many fraternal organizations in Alaska like the Pioneers, and Olson may have belonged to one or more of those.

ABOVE – A photo taken in Seward during a 1916 Pioneers of Alaska Picnic labeled the Six Oldest Pioneers of Alaska. Olson is standing at far right.

In the letter quote above, Kent says he’s been waiting for Olson to wire him for travel money. I’ve found no evidence that Kent did. It’s possible Olson told him that Hawkins and the Pioneers had given him enough money. Kent was probably in contact with someone in Seward who helped Olson with travel arrangments – perhaps Thomas Hawkins, Don Carlos Brownell or William Root, the postmaster. As the letter states, Kent did send Olson detailed directions, and Olson did carry two notes with him explaining his situation to railroad officials. Lars Matt Olson left Seward on the steamer Alameda at 10 a.m. June 18, 1920 en route to Vermont where he will make his future home.

BELOW -- The U.S. Alameda leaving the port of Seward.   Photo Source

Olson checked in one piece of luggage and shipped 300 pounds worth of household goods, including a pair of snowshoes. When he got to Seattle at 7 p.m. on June 27, Kent arranged for an agent to prepare a note for the old man to give to the train conductor in Seattle. “This man was over 30 years in Alaska and is very feeble,” the note read. “Anything you can do to help him will be appreciated.” Kent prepared a detailed, hand-written itinerary for Olson which read: “When you get to Chicago, you have to go from one railroad station to the other in a Bus that stands outside of the station. It is the New York Central Station that you go to. No trouble about this, there will be crowds of others going the same way.” He also tells Olson to telegraph him from Chicago to let him know what time his train is due in Albany, NY.

ABOVE – Kent neatly printed out specific directions for Olson, and included a time table on the Rutland Railroad from Albany to Arlington. He asked Olson to telegraph him from Chicago, letting him know when he would arrive in Albany. Archives of American Art

BELOW – Olson carried a second note, asking that officials assist him along the way – specifically with that bus trip in Chicago from one station to another. It reads: To whom it may concern: This man is bound for Arlington Vermont. To him changing cars at Chicago, Ill, please see that he gets on the proper train. He has one piece of baggage which is checked to Albany, N.Y. Here he will have to buy a ticket to Arlington and recheck baggage. If anything should happen, please wire F.D. Nickerson, 6448-13^th Ave., South Seattle, Wash. Archives of American Art

Once Olson got to Albany, Kent told him to buy a ticket to and check his baggage to Arlington, Vermont. “You can do this without seeing the baggage,” Kent wrote, “Check it right on the checks you already hold.” Kent then lists the train times. He reminds Olson that he needs to change cars at Troy, NY. “You will have only a few minutes to wait and don’t have to move out of that station. Then stay right on that train until you get to Arlington.” At the end of the itinerary, Kent writes in all caps – “GET OFF AT ARLINGTON. I’LL MEET YOU.”

Kent had planned to pick up Olson at Arlington, Vermont and take him to his farm. But the old miner and prospector perhaps wanted to remind Kent that he had tracked his way through many frontiers and could certainly find his own way from Arlington to “Egypt,” – even if he still wasn’t sure what that reference meant.

On July 1, 1920, Rockwell Kent wrote to this friend Carl Zigrosser: “OLSON HAS COME. The old man arrived today. We had a wire from him from Seattle, but the one he sent us from Albany last night failed to reach us in time, so he arrived right here at our door.

NEXT ENTRY

PART 7

LARS MATT OLSON LEAVES ALASKA

VIA STEAMSHIP AND TRAIN