Village Marshal Otto K. Olson

Otto K. Olson

Marshal Olson was shot and killed while attempting to arrest two men who were burglarizing a boxcar in the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad depot. The marshal had received a tip that a burglary would take place that night and surprised the men committing the crime. When he ordered the men to surrender, one of them opened fire, striking Marshal Olson once in the abdomen. He was picked up by citizens on Main Street and taken to Ovitz Hospital where he died early the next morning.

The county sheriff and several deputies responded to the scene. They followed tracks left in the snow to a nearby house where they arrested a suspect. The man confessed to the murder the next day and was sentenced to prison for the crime. He was paroled in 1945.

Marshal Olson had served in law enforcement for 23 years as a village marshal and deputy sheriff for the Forest County Sheriff's Office. He was a widower and survived by his son, three daughters, five brothers, and five sisters.