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TPL-4075
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Swedish native Peter Olson was employed as a driver by the family of prominent lumberman Col. Chauncey W. Griggs for nearly twenty years. He is pictured above at the former home of Major Everett Gallup Griggs aboard an elegant horse drawn Victoria carriage. He became an employee of Major Griggs upon the death of Col. Griggs in 1910 and remained in his employ until the major's departure from Tacoma during the Great War. Peter Olson was a versatile man; he learned to drive an enormous Packard before the day of the horse-and-carriage was entirely done. The Griggs family bought an automobile in the early part of the 20th century and even imported a man from Detroit to teach Mr. Olson how to drive this complicated machine, so different from a horse. It was said of Mr. Olson that he would do anything to work and never missed a day of work in his life. He later drove for the W.R. Rust family and eventually went into the real estate business where he built, bought and sold houses. Mr. Olson never married but always had a fondness for children; he left $1000 to the Children's Industrial Home upon his death in June of 1932 at the age of 60. (Photograph donated by Mr. H.S. Hammerlin) (TNT 3-3-33)
Olson, Peter; Chauffeurs--Tacoma; Coach drivers; Carriages & coaches--Tacoma; Horses--Tacoma; Griggs, Everett Gallup--Homes & haunts;