Edith and Byron Olsen, grandparents of Joe Sadlier, were both born in Minnesota. Edith’s family goes back to the Revolutionary days. Byron’s parents came from Norway and Sweden. Byron Olsen went to the Colorado School of Mines and received a degree in Civil Engineering. Byron died February 14, 1927 and Edith died in Ketchikan in 1948 or 1949.

Byron Olsen was a mine superintendent in the Sacramento, Calif. gold fields. He went to the Yukon (date unknown). It is said that he carried Crystal [Snow] Jenne over the Chilkoot Pass as she was only about two years old. The Olsens were close friends of the Snow and Jenne families.

Edith and Byron Olsen had five children: Wade, Clarence, Dorothy, Forrest and Winona (Betty). Forrest died when he was eleven. The family lived in a log cabin halfway between Skagway and Whitehorse (Yukon). Byron worked as a Civil Engineer on the railroad [White Pass and Yukon?].

They moved to Thane, near Juneau, around 1911. He was superintendent of building the Alaska Gastineau Mine. They lived in a tent the first winter until the first company house was built. After it was completed, they moved to Salmon Creek where Byron worked on the [Salmon Creek?] dam project, then Annex Creek.

When Byron’s health started to fail they moved back to Juneau and bought the Zynda Hotel, later called the Juneau Hotel. Later, they sold the hotel and bought a large home above Main St., which they turned into a boarding house. Edith cooked and ran the boarding house. After Byron died Betty took care of Edith; they moved to Ketchikan about 1932.