Poker Pete Chronology

This of course is not a complete chronology or time line of the life of Hans Peter Olsen otherwise known as Poker Pete.  This is just a collection of bit and pieces that appeared in the local newspapers that made mention of Pete Olsen.  A couple of items are repeated having appeared in previous posts.  The first item is as complete as I could make it as I couldn't read much of the article.  Apparently I wasn't able to find another more readable source. 

Hans Peter Olsen

"Poker Pete"

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                Down at Woodside there has been _____ board fence built in front of ______ of business of Peter Olsen _____ the officials of the Rio Grande _____ have taken the notion they _____ drive out of the country,____some of the section men _____ known to have drank in _____ conducted by Olsen _____ has the railroad com _____ struct the premises of Olsen _____ the company isn't getting _____ to do its work, it is the _____ fault.

Eastern Utah Advocate

January 11, 1900 

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                Orson Robbins has sold his saloon business at Huntington to Pete Olsen of Woodside. 

Emery Country Progress 

January 12, 1901

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                Peter Olsen of Woodside was in Price last Tuesday and paid his respects to "the great moral and religious" while in town.  He says times are very quiet there now, but thinks they will be better with the coming of spring. 

Eastern Utah Advocate

March 9, 1905

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                The following Emery County citizens drew prizes in the big land drawing at Provo last week. 

                Out of 60 whose names and numbers given below not over a dozen will go onto the reservation to look it over and of this dozen it is likely that more than half will exercise their right to claim a selection: 

                . . .

                48_0  Peter Olsen, Woodside. 

Emery Country Progress 

August 26, 1905 

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                A saloon license was granted to Peter Olsen of Woodside for the ensuing quarter on the payment of $100. 

Emery Country Progress

April 11, 1908  

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MINING ON CEDAR MOUNTAIN

   According to reports someone has started a little mining boom around Cedar Mountain.  Chris Larsen and Ervin Draper of Castle Dale were over in that direction a few days ago delivering a few tons of oats to Peter Olsen at Woodside.  They noticed about a dozen men prospecting and working in the district and ascertained that a few Denver men were in the party for the purpose of examining the territory with the view of prospecting and developing same.  Considerable work has been done there in the past by various parties and ore has been found that runs very high in silver and lead with some gold and copper.  Ex Sheriff Hardy of Sale Lake City and the Hecker Mining Company have also done considerable exploitation work and obtained fairly good results but the distance from the railroad and the heavy freight charges from Desert Switch to a smelter point have discouraged the proposition of mining very extensively.  With some method of treating the ore locally there is enough of it already exposed and of good value to warrant mining operations on an extensive scale. 

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                Peter Olsen of Woodside had a narrow escape from being killed by a train at Price Saturday morning.  Olsen came in on No 7 and while alighting from the train missed his hold and fell under the wheels.  A bystander saw his peril and pulled him out just in time to save him from being run over.  It was a narrow escape and one Olsen does not care to experience again. 

Eastern Utah Advocate 

July 21, 1910 

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                CASTLE DALE, Oct 21.  The following have been appointed judges of election for the election November 8th. 

                Green River - Frank Cook, F. A. |Bricker, T. D. Spalding. 

                Woodside - S. M. Miller, Alfred Peterson, Peter Olsen. 

                Desert Lake - H. G. Mills, Samuel Wells, Joseph Smith .

                Cleveland - Adolph Axelson, W. E. Cowley, Louis P. Oveson. 

                Huntington - District No. 1, William Howard, J. V. Leonard, E. G. Geary.  District No. 2, Christoher Wilcox, Henry Stevensen, Heber Leonard. 

Eastern Utah Advocate 

July 27, 1910 

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OLSEN IS ACQUITTED

Green River Editor Sore On the

Good "Bishop of Woodside"

                After hearing positive proof by direct testimony of three witnesses, who swore that they had bought liquor of "Poker Pete" Olsen at Woodside, the case against Olsen was dismissed last Thursday by T. S. Turner, justice of the peace in this precinct, who sustained the argument of W. H. Frye of Price, attorney for the defendant, who maintained that all evidence not favorable to his client was irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial, says Green River's Dispatch. 

                Prosecuting Attorney Powers could not produce documentary evidence that Woodside is in 'dry' territory and in the absence of this testimony Judge Turner refused to admit the evidence.  Court records showing that Olsen had been convicted for the same offense before were shut out and notwithstanding that the judge had himself assessed the bootlegger a fine only a few weeks previous, he gave credence to the argument of Attorney Frye and took the stand in the matter as stated Counsel for the prosecution attempted to place witnesses on the stand that Olsen himself had admitted that he violated the law, but this too, was overruled and an old offender was set scotfree. 

                Everybody knows that Woodside is in dry territory and by virtue of the state law providing that no liquor shall be sold outside of cities and towns, therefore the Dispatch feels that in justice to the saloon men of this city who are paying a high license, there should have been a conviction in this flagrant case, the testimony being so positive.                 

Eastern Utah Advocate 

June 6, 1912 

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                In the summer of 1899 he took me down there with him.  After a train ride of several hours we landed at the little settlement of Lower Crossing, a station on the Rio Grande Western railroad.  It was called Lower Crossing because it was the last of several times that the railroad crossed Price River.  The name was later changed from the descriptive Lower Crossing to nondescript "Woodside" by order of the Post Office Department. 

                At that time Lower Crossing consisted of a railroad station, section house and a water tank.  Nearby was a farm owned by three Swiss brothers, Louie, Felix and Bert Pressit.  Over on the riverbank was the only commercial establishment in the settlement, operated by a character known as Poker Pete.  In one room of a two-room cabin, Pete lived; in the other room he kept a small stock of overalls, flour, coffee, tobacco and salt, and a large stock of very poor whiskey and beer.  Prominent in this room was a card table, and Pete's aim in life was to get some wandering sheepherder drunk so that he could skin him out of his winter's wages in a poker game.  After some success in this line, Pete would get the idea that he was a real gambler and needed a wider field for his skill.  But he always came back.  Broke. 

Harvey Hardy, A Cabin on Price River, True West 

December 1964, p. 26.

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PETER OLSEN IS DEAD

Well Known Resident of Woodside Is

Buried at Huntington

                Peter Olsen, ranch man, merchant and livestock man died at his home at Woodside last Saturday evening about 7 o'clock of heart and lung troubles after an illness that had kept him practically to his bed for several weeks.  Deceased was in the fifty-sixth year of his age and had resided in this section of Eastern Utah for about thirty years.  He had been in business at Woodside some twenty years. 

                As a child he came to Utah with his parents Mr. and Mrs. Jorgen Olsen from Denmark and located at Ephraim where the father and mother are buried.  He is survived by one brother, Sophus Olsen, and two sisters, Mrs. William Pehrson of Salt Lake City and Mrs. Martin Jensen of Huntington.  The body was brought to Price Sunday evening and taken to Huntington last Monday for the funeral and burial. 

                Decedent was a kindly man and if he ever did anyone an intentional wrong or had a bad hair in his head it is not known.  His charities were numerous and he will be mostly missed by those who knew him best.  In his business dealings he was straight as a string.  He leaves an estate believed to amount to several thousand dollars including a ranch, stock of merchandise, and some cattle and horses.