Andrew I. Anderson (1855-1923) 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2023, Theme: "Bald"

When not engaged in family history research, I am most likely to be found in my studio creating original quilted fabric wall hangings. My current project features my balding great grandfather Andrew Anderson. He shows up in much livelier colors than the shades of gray in the handful of old black and white pictures we have of him. Andrew is the final of my eight great-grandparents to have his story told, largely because he has remained a bit of an enigma, dying too long ago to have his life stories remembered into the present generation. One thing we do know is that he played the violin; that would certainly have added color to his life.

Andrew Anderson - Fabric Art 2023 by Joanne Barnard

 

Andrew was born Anders Israelson in Lier, Buskerud, Norway on 25 September 1855. His father Israel Anderson was a Swede who had  moved to Norway and married Norwegian Johanna Gundersdatter earlier that year.  

1855  Døpte (Birth/Baptism) Records from the Lier Kirkebøker

When Anders was just 6 months old, he moved with his parents to America, settling in Wisconsin for several years before moving to Iowa. Following American tradition, Anders Israelson became Andrew I. Anderson, with the entire family thereafter used Israel's Anderson surname. Eight younger siblings would join the family over the following years.

1856  Kirkebøker Udflyttede (Departure) Record for Anders and his parents leaving Norway for "Amerika"

In January of 1879 at the age of 24 Andrew homesteaded in the Dakota Territory, 10 miles west of what would become Grafton, North Dakota. Andrew soon met his future wife Jorgena Torkelson who lived in the same area with her parents. It has been suggested that the couple were married by Justice of the Peace K.O. Skettleboe on the same date as Jorgena's sister Burget and Thomas Thompson (27 January 1880) but no record has been located. Andrew was active in community affairs, being the county assessor for several years and on the local school board.  Andrew spoke English well but Jorgena always preferred her native Norwegian.

Andrew Anderson 1879 (is his hair showing early signs of receding?)

Babies arrived to the young couple with regularity every two years, beginning with Josephine in 1880, then Carl in 1882, Ida in 1884, Cora in 1886, Annetta in 1888, Clarence in 1890, Ingvald (my grandfather) on 3 January 1893. After that, the only child who survived was Cora born in 1903. Infant son Arnold born 1894 had died in infancy. The tragedy deepened with the loss of another child at about age 3 and then a stillbirth for a child born in 1900.  This last delivery resulted in Jorgena suffering  blood poisoning and its after effects, all of which led to her mental deterioration and institutionalization in the State Hospital for the Insane in Yankton, South Dakota. It must have been an extremely difficult situation for them all.

This was no doubt what instigated Andrew's move with his family to South Dakota about 1906. At the time, they had a ranch about 90 miles from a railroad and once a year all supplies were hauled in by team and wagon. The Andersons lived in a sod house. By this time the oldest children were young adults living in the same area and no doubt provided Andrew with assistance with his younger children. 

Andrew Anderson Family c.1898
Front row seated: Andrew Anderson, daughter Jessie holding her baby, Jorgena
Back row standing: Clarence, Nettie, Cora, another Andrew (husband of Jessie) and young Ingvald
(By now. at about age 43, Andrew's hairline is obviously receding. Although never completely bald either, young Ingvald would develop the same male pattern baldness as he aged.)

When the railroad came through the area, Andrew sold out and bought an interest in a hardware store and farm implement dealership in Haynes in the southern part of North Dakota. This was on the newly opened railroad extension to the transcontinental Milwaukee Line. The town began in 1906 as Gadsden and changed its name to Haynes in 1907, with Andrew being one of its first businessmen. (In 2020 its population was apparently just 15  - barely more than the number of men who showed up for the following photo over a century earlier!)

Haynes, N.D., c.1908 - Andrew Anderson in front of the Hardware entry

Andrew's widowed father Israel and several of Andrew's siblings and his own children moved to new homesteads in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada in the period from about 1904-1910, but one can understand that Andrew would have felt obligated to remain in the Dakotas nearer to his wife's institution.

After Jorgena's death in 1912, Andrew purchased land in Graham, Washington. He married widowed dressmaker Lucretia Holloway in Lake Stevens, Washington on 5 April 1920. 

Andrew and Lucretia 1920

His new-found happiness would not last long. Although no death record has been obtained for Lucretia, family lore says she died in 1921. Andrew himself died while visiting his children Clarence, Ingvald, Ida and Nettie in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1923. No record for his burial has been located. 

Andrew with grandchildren Robert and Kathryn at the Lancer, Saskatchewan homestead of his son Ingvald in 1923 shortly before his death
(As he is now sporting a stylish cap, we cannot ascertain how bald Andrew ever became.)