Oscar Martin Mathiasson was born 27 September 1862, the oldest child of
Johan Mathiasson (Matson) and Christina Sophia Abrahamsdotter, in
Upsala, Sweden.
At the age of ten years, Oscar was employed in the street paving
operations of his father, who was a contractor in that line of work,
continuing in the summertime for six years. He then went to work at the
stone quarry of his father where he labored in the months of the year
when he was not employed at paving for four more years. (1882)
He was the first of his family to come to America, landing in Chicago
in about 1882, where he took the name of Oscar Martin, dropping the
Mathiasson from his name. He stayed with one of his mother’s
brothers. He worked as a carpenter, then on a Wisconsin farm. His uncle
wanted him to stay in Chicago with them, but after Oscar’s family
imigrated to Utah in 1884, he went west to join them.
He located in Ogden near his family, where he met his future wife,
Annie Dora Grandin, a Swedish immigrant who came to America in 1881 on
the ship City of Brussels. They were married 24 October 1886. (Some
records show their marriage as 1887.) Oscar’s sister, Emma,
records in her life history that Annie and Oscar met in Ogden where
Oscar was working as a carpenter and they were married in “about
1886.”
Oscar worked at surveying in Pocatello, Idaho, for the Oregon Short
Line Railroad either shortly before or after his marriage. He and Annie
then moved to LaBelle, Idaho, where they homesteaded 160 acres, near
where his parents and siblings had moved. Annie’s parents came to
America in 1891 and lived in LaBelle near Oscar and Annie.
To secure money for the improvements needed on his farm, Oscar worked
at carpentry in Ogden and in a rock quarry in Idaho Falls. He assisted
in building the LaBelle Canal and built the double head gates of that
ditch.
The family worked at farming, where Oscar “grubbed as long as he
could,” and then concluded he could do more profitable work for
his family at his trade of carpentry. He built the first mill erected
at Menan, the Smith store and the Smith residence, and did other
carpentry work in the area. He also worked three years on bridge work
for the Oregon Short Line Railroad.
Author of Progressive Men of Idaho, A. W. Bowen, states,
“Altogether his services have been of much more than ordinary
value to the people, as he can turn his hand to any trade or occupation
with consummate skill. He is of that class of citizen who are a direct
benefit to the community in which they reside.”
Annie and Oscar were blessed with 8 children:
1. May Victoria Martin, born 9 August 1888, died 28 December 1893
2. Oscar Walter Martin, born 28 May 1891, died 29 December 1893
3. Otto Richard Martin, born 30 July 1892, died 28 May 1943
4. Minnie Sophia Martin, born 21 February 1894, died 8 November 1959
5. John Edward Martin, born 19 Mar 1896, died in April 1972
6. Dora Kissie Martin, born 13 Feb 1900, died 8 October 1951
7. Elmer Grandin Martin, born in 1905, died 22 December 1929
8. Victor Russell Martin, born 29 September 1907, died in 1930
Census records show a move from LaBelle, Idaho, to California sometime
between 1920 and 1930. The 1900, 1910, and 1920 census records
show the family residing in LaBelle, Idaho. In 1920, Oscar was 57 years
old, Annie was 54. Sometime between 1920 and 1930, they must have left
the farm and moved to California, because the 1930 census shows Annie
and Oscar living in LaCrescenta, Los Angeles, California.
Son, John Edward Martin, seems to have been the first to go to
California. The 1920 census records show John living in Riverside,
California, enrolled in Air Service Pilot School. The 1930 census shows
him married, with a son, John E. Martin.
By 1930, Otto was also in California, married and living in Oakland.
Elmer Grandin died in California at age 24. Victor Russell died in
Glendale, California in 1998.
Although, Annie and Oscar evidently followed their sons to California,
their two daughters married and stayed in the intermountain area.
Minnie Sophia married Waldemar Olsen. She died in Ririe, Idaho. Dora
Kissie married Jesse Moroni Robison and died in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Annie died in Riverside, California, 18 January 1935. Oscar died 19 January 1942. His place of death is unknown at this time.
Sources:
1. Progressive Men of Idaho, page 305. Written by A. W. Bowen, 1904
2. Life story of Emma Matson Browning
3. Familysearch.org
4. Ancestry.com, census records
