Anders and Maria
Anders Mattiasson was born Nov 26, 1834 and his wife Maja-Stina was born July 25, 1834. The couple had eight children but two of them died.
In 1880, Karl August (17) the oldest son went to work on a Arendal farm. From Arendal he left for America where he became Charlie Anderson.

1882 Magnus (18) left the farm to find a voyage to America where he became Manuel Anderson.
Lovisa went in 1884 and joined her brothers who were in Kansas City, Kansas. Probably Charlie and/or Manuel sent money and encouraged the rest of the family to emigrate to America.

On March 25, 1886 Anders (51), Maja (51), Otto (16), Mathilda (14) and Oscar (10) left their farm to go to America. As they bid farewell to their old home, friends and relatives, they fully realized that they were going almost empty-handed to a strange land.
On April 16, less than a month later, Maja and the children returned to the farm. We can assume that there was not enough room on the ship. On July 30,1886, Maja and the children left the farm again for the voyage to America and the ship Angelo left Christiania on August 27. There were only 80 people on the ship this time.

Anders had gone west as far as Red Cloud, Nebraska and he, Maria and the younger children lived there for about a year. Anders goal was to own land by homesteading. Anders filed papers with the U.S.Government immediately to let them know of his decision to become a citizen. Then they probably went by train into Western Kansas to choose and apply for a homestead. He chose 160 acres, 12 miles north and 2 miles east of Lamborn, which is Kanarado today. Later, he traded this for a homeplace on the Kansas/Colorado state line. His son, Manuel, had a homesteaded next to this one and they lived with him. They had to ”prove up” for five years before being given title to the land. Anders got his final citizenship in 1893 from the district court of Sherman Co., Kansas. He had fulfilled his homestead requirements and got title to his homestead on September 14, 1905.

Maria wrote a letter to Louise in 1899 which indicates that they moved with Manuel when he went into business in Huxtun, Colorado, near Sterling.
She writes:”It is not lonesome here. People are coming and going. This is a big store”. Sometime within the next year or so, they moved back and lived with Oscar. Maria was described as being very tender-hearted. Helen says that Maria would cry when i chicken died.
She had stomach trouble and died on February 23, 1902 at the age of 67 years and 7 months. She was buried in the Beaver Valley Cemetery on Feb 27, 1902.

On May 19, 1902 Anders was ploughing north of Oscars farm. He was on a riding plough pulled by four horses. He saw a large rattlesnake under the plough and it crawled under a slanting, or raised-up piece of sod. Anders stopped the horses and took a wrench to turn the piece of sod over so that he could kill it. Suddenly the snake struck him on the back of his thumb. He had to shake his hand several times before the fangs would come out. He sucked on the thumb to get the poison out as he got back on the plow and rode back to Oscars farm. Oscar’s wife, Nettie, called the doctor in Burlington, Colorado. He and his wife came right away but it was in the night before they could get there. Anders had cut his lip that morning and when he sucked the poison from the wound it hit his mouth. When the doctor arrived he gave hypodermic injections and left medicine for him, but he passed away before morning. The funeral was in the sod house and he was buried next to Maria at Beaver Valley Cemetery.

This is an translations from ”The Anderson Story” made of Ardis Ellman.

Charles (Carl August) Anderson

Clyde, Charlies grandson´s memories.

He had a mustache and had the blues eyes I´ve ever seen.
1. That he sailed around the Cap Horn – enough said, and when he first married, he refused to answer questions asked of him by his wife Marie, unless spoken in English. He wanted her to learn English
2. He worked for the railroad and later was a watchman at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. I recall visits there and seeing all sorts of specimens and organs
3. He visited us mostly alone bringing hardtack, ringers and couscous; and that
4. Charlie, his brother Otto, my dad Carl and I all belonged to a Swedish lodge called Nordens Venner.
5. Charlie died at 75. He was a loving grandfather.

Uncle Manuel (Magnus)
Nothing is known about where Manuel lived or what he did for almost 10 years after arriving in America. He may have been in Kansas where his brother Charlie settled. Manuel was an astute busiess man. He home-steaded in Sherman County, Kansas, near the Colorado state line. Manuel must have sold his homesteaded land when he moved over 100 miles west and owned a grocey store in Bryant, Colorado. In April, 1899 he bought land in Huxtun, Colorado He operated a general store which also sold groceries and he also bought cream and eggs. He had a lot to do with the building of this community. He was in lumber business, ran a coal yard, sold implements and furniture. He let people charge at his store and pay back as they could. The people loved him and they felt there would not have been a town without him. At some time in his life he had a girl-friend and they were engaged to be married. But she was a flirt and ran off with someone else. He was very hurt, so hurt that he never went with anyone again.
He later sold his business and moved to San Diego, California. After he retired he got involved with some church group. It was probably a cult. It involved mediums. They encouraged him to give almost all his money to them. In San Diego in December, 1938 he had a stroke. His date of death is not known but every relative remembers that his body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Louisa (Lovisa)
When Louisa was living in in Kansas City she met and married Alfred L. Anderson, who was also from Sweden. They had two children when while in Kansas City. In 1986 the young couple took a homestead in Beaver Valley area of Kit Carson County, Colorado. Another son and daughter jopined the family. Alfred died in 1901. Louisa´s parents had a homestead nearby and when Alfred died they came to help Louisa, then Maria, Louisas mother died the next year. Life must have been hard for Louisa with four children to raise.
During the years that Louisa was raising her family she acquired more land til she had a full section – 640 acres. She raised potatoes, grain and garden vegetables, some fruit and cattle. Her brother Otto, had a store in Kansas City and she shipped cream and produce to him.
Louisa loved the land and was a very determined lady. When a road was being built from the highway they wanted some of Louisas´s land but she wouldn´t sell so the road has to jog around her land.

Otto
When Otto arrived in America he went west with his family to the homestad on the Kansas/Colorade state line. He remained there only a short time and then moved to Nebraska where he obtained employ-meant at farm work and attended night classes in English. After that he went to Kansas City where his brother, Charlie, lived. He was now 18 years old. He worked for Wyandotta and Northwestern Railroad and Pullman Co.

In four years he had saved enough money to start a small grocery business; a year later his premises were too small and he moved his business. His brother Oscar sent milk, cream and butter to be sold in the store. He succeeded in the business struggle by practicing hones-ty, fairness and justness to everybody.
When he was 28, he married Ida Florence who was 19 from Wamego, Kansas. They had eight children, six boys and two girls. He was elected to the City Council twice. Then in 1910, Otto was elected to a one-year term as commissioner of Streets and Public Property.

He was at his office at 7.00 in the morning and was occupied the entire day. He handled his job for the street department in a manner which is above praise and with the same interest as he took care of his own business. When he ran for his third term it was discovered that Otto wasn´t a citizen. When Otto´s father got his citizenship he assumed it included the whole family. In 1913 Otto got his certificate of naturalization and that included his whole family.

He was going to his job on January 31, 1945 when he was found dead at 9.15 a.m. in the cloakroom on the third floor of the Courthouse. He had not removed his hat or coat and held his gloves in his hand. His car had stalled earlier in front of his home and he perspired in the chilly morning as he helped volunteers start the motor. He collapsed, probably from a heart attack. The coroner said death could have been caused by the head injury from the fall or by a heart attack. He was 75 years old and had lived i Kansas City, Kansas, for 58 years.

Mathilda

Mathilda was 14 years when she arrived in America. She married in February, 1892 in Goodland, Kansas to August Johnson of Ashland, Colorado. He was also from Sweden. They moved to Page county, Iowa where August owned a farm near his father´s farm in the Bethesda area.
Life was hard for most farmers. There was no running water or electricity. Electricity was available in the end of 1920´s. All the cooking and baking was done on stoves heated with wood.
August and Mathilda were faithful members of Bethesda Lutheran Church all of their married lifes and went to church every Sunday.
In 1917 August began to be bothered by kidney problems and on May 4, he saw dr. Seablom in Red Oak and was diagnosed with chronic nephritis. He died in his home on Sunday morning, August 20. Mathilda was a widow, 45 years old, with five children ages 6-23. Her brothers and sister all came from Kansas and Colorado to be with her for August’s funeral.

Her children all married (except Wary) and farmed near her in the Bethesda area. Wray lived at home with her.
In July 1937 Mathilda was ill and the family took her to see Dr. Cooper and he drove her to Immanuel Hospital in Omaha. She had surgery at midnight. She had cancer if the colon which had spread to the liver. The doctor said the cancer spread like a fire in dry leaves during the surgery. One week later she had a second operation.
She died August2, 1937 and all five of her children were with her. She was buried beside August in the Bethesda Cemetery.

Memories of her that she was quite and spoke with a low, soft voice. Her granddaughter, Gertrude remembers her as ” a quite, patient woman. I remember visiting her, but I don’t remember any conversation with her.

Oscar Anderson
Oscar was 10 years when he arrived in America. He married 1899 in Goodland, Kansas to Nettied Latelia Anderson, born in Iowa. They had seven children and five survived.

They lived for three years with Manuel in Huxtun, Colorado and Nettie got to work ín the store while they were there. Oscar and Nettie then moved to a place now known as the Rufus Stephens place. This place was built on the state line so the buildings were in Colorado and Kansas. The children herded cattle barefooted and killed rattlesnakes with birdle reins.

Oscar passed away on Feb. 9, 1953 at the age of 77 years.. Life was never the same for Nettie after Oscar´s passing and she made her home permanently with her daughter Helen. She passed away on Nov. 11, 1961 in the age of 81 years. Both are buried at Beaver Valley Cemetery in Kansas.


The information of the Anderson family comes from Ardis Ellman, a grand-child of Mathilda.