A Home's Story

Written by Kay Olin Johnson

In March of 1972, my husband Don and I walked up to a big old house on 9th Street South in Fargo, North Dakota. We needed a home for our family. I said, "I know what the woodwork should look like in that house and if someone has painted it, I am going to scream!" It was very popular to modernize by painting woodwork.

Asa Wilmoth Olin

Born: 1 Jan 1818 Canton, St Lawrence, NY

Died: 16 Jan 1864 Camp Relief, Washington DC

Asa was the son of Deacon Joseph Mitchel Olin and his line was >Ensign Caleb Olin> Henry Olin> John Olin I.

Asa died serving as a Private in the Union Army in the Civil War. Recently I was teaching a class on using military records to discover biographical data about ancestors and I used Asa as my test case for my students.

With technical assistance from Ruth Ellis, I have finally marked off a 16-year-old action item. (I'm sure the fact that I had a 16-year-old action item says a lot about me, but no comments are needed. I already know. On a more positive note, I am proud to say that I persisted in completing this task.)

As you may know, the first real OLIN Family Historian was a man named George Sheldon NYE.  George was a member of the Ezra OLIN Tribe (John>John>John>Ezra OLIN, SR.) and that was his primary focus.  George published his family history in 1892.  It was the first known published book about the history of a branch of our clan.  He was aware of Grandmother’s Bible and quoted from it in his book.  In the book he wrote: