Reginald Olsen: Norway to Ottawa
(information taken from "the Olsen Story", published 1992, Dorothy Anderson)
Reginald Olsen was born in Ulnes Norway on March 28, 1881, to Ole Olsen and Rahnhild Larsen.
His uncle, Mr. Kristian Olsen lived in Ottawa in the 1890's. In 1896, he returned to Norway to encourage people to move to Canada. Reg Olsen (Kristian's nephew) and his friend Eric Johnson left Ulnes, Norway travelling by train to Bergen then by boat to Canada and train to Ottawa. Reg Olsen stayed in Ottawa; Eric Johnson and Kristian Olsen travelled on to Deer Lake, near Sudbury.
Reg's older brother Walter (also born in Ulnes, October 28, 1877) had immigrated to Ottawa earlier in 1893 and worked there until 1896 when he moved to Kipling to visit a cousin, Hans Christiansen. He went to work in the Nickel mines in Sudbury until 1897 when he moved out west near Fort MacLeod, Alberta.He returned to Ottawa and was married on August 27, 1902 to Sarah Gardner, the sister of Lily, Reg's wife. They moved back to the mines, then finally settled at Deer Lake.
Reginald originally started to work for a farmer, then for Gartner Cab where he met his future wife, Lily Gardner. With the farmer's refence, Reg then found employment with the Quebec Bank, located on Wellington Street across from the Houses of Parliament. The Quebec Bank was taken over by the Royal Bank of Canada where he worked at the main branch on Sparks Street. He worked for the bank for more than forty years.
Reginald married Francis Lily Gardner on May 18, 1900. Lily had come to Canada in 1888 with her parents William and Caroline Gartner and their other children Sarah, Ernest, Richard and Harry. Reginald and Lily had four children, Harry, Ernest, Florence and Charles. They lived above the Quebec Bank on Wellington Street and the children played on the lawns of the Parliament Buildings.
In 1910 or 1911, Lily received an inheritance from England and they purchased a motorboat called "Row No More".
Lily Olsen passed away during childbirth on July 13, 1914 and mother and child are buried in the Beechwood cemetary in Ottawa. Lily's sister, Sarah who had married Reginald's brother Walter, after Lily's death took in the four children at their farm in Kipling, Ontario.
In 1922, Reginald married a second time to Emmaline Scott and continued to work and live in Ottawa. He was an avid reader, preferring National Geographic magazines and the daily Ottawa Journal newspaper as well as a Norwegian newspaper. In 1918, he learned to play the violin and often played at wedding receptions or other special occasions. Often Emma would accompany him on the mandolin while holidaying in Kipling with Walter and Sarah. While he bicycled back and forth to work, he also owned a motorcycle and a sidecar, and in 1921, purchase a Model Model T.
Two of his sons, Harry and Ernie, had married and moved back to Ottawa from Kipling, and Charlie moved back to live with his father in Ottawa as well.
Emma passed away on November 3, 1955 and Reginald on July 24, 1967, and are buried in the United Cemetaries in Carleton Place, Ontario.