Businesses on the Southwest Corner of Judd & Maple

After the sawmill declined in the 1880s, the town’s economy relied on its small businesses. There was surprising economic diversity and competition among retailers. During this period, Henry Olsen’s general store was located where Maple and Parker streets intersected, which today is the southwest corner of Judd & Maple. Olsen’s was in direct competition with the C.H. Burris and Charles Strand general stores on the opposite corners of Judd Street.

Schmidt & Graf Store

Emil Graf and his father John Graf purchased a brewery on the sawmill reservation in 1857. They were turning out up to five hundred barrels of beer in 1865. But they sold the brewery when Emil Graf entered a partnership with newly immigrated resident William Schmidt to build a new general store on the SW corner of Judd & Maple in 1869. Graf also built a “billiard” saloon just south of the Schmidt & Graf store.

Graf left Marine in 1879, and John Rose and Swen Magnuson became new partners with Schmidt in 1880, forming the Rose, Magnuson & Co. Rose and Magnuson would later also own a competing general store on the NE corner. William Schmidt was elected to the Minnesota legislature in 1882 and became less active in the store. Henry Olsen and Asa Parker stepped in, joining the partnership in 1884, after which the store operated as Rose, Olsen & Parker. By 1889, Olsen had bought out the other partners and opened the store under his own name.

Henry Olsen Store

Henry Olsen was born in Marine where he started work in 1879 at the Schmidt & Graf store at age 21. After 3½ years there, he worked 1½ years at the Walker, Judd & Veazie store across Judd Street. Then in 1884, he bought a one-third interest in his first workplace, which became the Rose, Olsen & Parker store. Now an established business owner, he married Amelia Mermond, a daughter of Charles Mermond who owned a saloon and inn on the north corner of Maple Street. Olsen took full ownership of Rose, Olsen & Parker the same year his son H. Mermond was born in 1889.

In 1915 Mermond Olsen became a partner in the store and was sole proprietor in the 1920s. Olsen’s store and his beautiful home next door were razed in 1951 to make way for the State Highway 95 through town.

— Andrew Kramer and the Marine Historic Signage Committee