Olsburg is a small town nestled in the Flint Hills of Kansas.  There 212 people residing in the city limits and approximately 200 or more in the rural area.  According to most historians, Olsburg was founded in 1880 when the Kansas Central Railroad ran its line through this area.  Some historians can trace the beginnings of Olsburg as far back as 1853.  Most of the original settlers were of Swedish and Norwegian decent.

It is said that Ole Turlson migrated to the area in 1862 and gave his name to the new community calling it Olesburgh, Ole after Turlson’s first name and Burgh for the Swedish meaning of town.  Mr. Turlson also established the first post office and was the first postmaster.

Others say that when Ole Johnson established his drug store in 1880 that the town was named after him. Since the post office was established some 16 years earlier and given that Ole Turlson was the first postmaster, the namesake of the Olsburg community is usually credited to Turlson.  The name Olesburgh was anglicized to Olsburg on November 7, 1887.

The Swedish Methodist Church and Olsburg Methodist Church were established in 1880.  Both the Swedish Methodist Church and Olsburg Methodist Church held services in homes until both congregations joined to build a single church building in 1887 where both congregations held services at different times on Sundays. 

Olsburg Lutheran Church was established in the spring of 1881as a sister church to Mariadahl Lutheran Church which was displaced by Tuttle Creek Reservoir.   Worship services were held in the school house until 1886 when the first church building was completed. In 1939 the present church building held its first services.

In 1880 a school house was built, then destroyed by a tornado.  In 1882 the school was rebuilt.  In many of communities of the day, schools were among the first buildings constructed and were a type of community center, being used for church services until those buildings could be built. 

Many of the buildings in Olsburg were built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and some are still in use today.  One of those buildings is our grocery store, Loberg Grocery, built around the turn of the century. 

As the city came together in the 1880’s, Olsburg proved it was and still is a city that can come together for a good cause.  As the Topeka Daily Capital said in 1889, “Olsburg has always had that . . . element of big moral character”.