Hilmar Olsen
February 14, 1879, Namsos, Norway — August 11, 1959, Seldovia, Alaska
Buried in Seldovia City Cemetery Plot #164HILMAR OLSEN was born in Namsos, Norway on February 14, 1879. In 1910 he was a seaman on a ship in Shelikof Strait. He was living on Kachemak Bay by 1920 and was a fox and fur farmer then and in 1930 census as well. These census records indicate that he first immigrated to the United States about 1904 and applied for citizenship in 1914, but so far we haven’t found any of those documents.
Hilmar never married until 1943 when he married Hanna Hansen Pedersen, widow of Peder Pedersen in Seldovia on January 20, 1943.
From Elsa Pedersen’s book “Kachemak Bay Years”: Hilmer Olsen of Bradley River, our first upper-bay friend after he had moved to Seldovia and before we moved to Bear Cove, came to a tragic end. His wife grew senile, and her son made arrangements for her to enter a nursing home and for Hilmer to go to the Pioneer Home at Sitka. He was nearly blind and would soon be helpless to care for himself. One day he put his old squirrel-shooting rifle to his head and pulled the trigger. His neighbor found Hilmer in his woodshed the next morning, still sitting upright, his life ebbed.”
Hilmar died on August 11, 1959 and is buried in the Seldovia City Cemetery, Plot #164.