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Last updated 06/09/10
Ahlson, Charles,
Dairyman, Fruit Grower — Fairvale — born in
Norrköping on January 6, 1866. In the summer of 1869 he accompanied his maternal
aunt and her husband John Ahlson to America where they settled in Chesterton,
Indiana. In 1873 the family moved to Oregon and bought, for $400, a small plot
of 7½ acres in the Fairvale Valley, 3½ miles southwest of Portland. Cows were
bought, and the milk was sold in Portland. In those days the only way to get
there was by a trail, which led through the unspoiled old-growth forest up and
down the several hundred feet high hill situated between the Fairvale Valley and
Portland. "Old man Ahl", as John Ahlson was commonly known, for many years by
foot trudged up this difficult hill along precipice and ravines down to
Portland, carrying his heavy milk cans to the city and, in the same
uncomfortable and strenuous way, carrying home all the family needed in the way
of clothes, milk, sugar and other things.
Over time the situation changed. Roads were built, the milk yoke was exchanged for a carriage and over time, for a covered wagon and a pair of horses. John Ahlson died in1892. His wife is also dead, and both are resting in the cemetery on Rawley after completing a life's work of honor and glory. Charles Ahlson, whose tenacious work to some extent added to their enormous wealth, which the old people achieved long before their death, inherited the farm after them. After retailing 100 gallons of milk a day to individual families every day for fifteen years without a break, he sold his milk business 19 years ago and has since then worked exclusively with fruit and berry growing as well as poultry-keeping.
In 1904 he bought the adjacent 22 acres, of which 19 are cultivated. As proof of the fertility of this place, it can be mentioned that one of the cherry trees in 1908 yielded $25 and in 1909 $31, and that Ahlson from his raspberry bushes, which only occupy a fraction of an acre, last year sold raspberries for $200, half of which was pure profit. He has been vice-president and clerk in his school district for 22 years straight. Married since 1890 to Mary Olsen from Bergen, Norway and has three daughters and a son. Another son died at the age of 18 months.
