The Andersons at Bawlf, Alberta, Canada (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 32 theme: "Wide Open Spaces")

My maternal great great grandfather Israel Anderson (1829-1910) spent a lifetime searching for wide open spaces. Born in 1829  and raised in Laxarby, Västra Götaland, Sweden, 3 miles from the nearest town, he moved to Norway as a young man to work on a farm there. He married farmer's daughter Johanna Gundersdatter Opsahl and moved to America in 1856 with wife and their first child, my great grandfather Anders (Andrew) Anderson. 

Israel and Johanna went on to have the following children: Andrew b 1855, Sophia b. abt. 1856, Ida b. 1858, Gunelius b. 1862, Olava b. 1864, Annetta b. 1868, John b. 1868, Betsy b. abt. 1870 and Carl Gustaf b. 1873. Johanna died in 1900.  

Over the years, the call of its wide open spaces took Israel and family to several newly developing areas on the American frontier. After first settling in Decatur, WI, they moved on to Northwood County, Iowa and then to Grafton, Dakota Territories, traveling by train and covered wagon. In 1901 son Carl Gustaf moved across the border to homestead in Manitoba. In 1902 son Gunelius moved his family to Canada as well, settling in what became the Bawlf area of what was then the North-West Territories.  In 1903 Israel himself emigrated for a third and final time to join Gunelius in the Bawlf area. He was a widower in his mid-70s.

Alberta was not even yet a province when Israel arrived. In 1903 the land was still part of the North-West Territories, and, of course, before that had been part of the truly wide open spaces occupied by the western First Nations peoples. At noon on 1 September 1905 Alberta became a Province of Canada. Israel had been there for a couple of years by this time.

Google Earth view of Bawlf area - showing the present-day checkerboard of fields that were wide open spaces when the Andersons arrived

The Village of Bawlf was established in the vast Canadian prairies in 1905, the same year that Alberta became a province. Named for Nicholas Bawlf, president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, the town came into being alongside the new railroad. Farming and shipping grain were its raison d'être.

Son Gunelius "G.I."  had moved there the preceding year with his family. The following is from a letter dated 17 May 1977 from Ernie and Esther Anderson to R.W. "Bob" Anderson, based on their recollections of  comments made by Gunelius's son Lawrence Anderson: 

"G.I. left Edinburg, N.D., where he owned a hotel, in 1902 and moved to Alberta. Andrew and John came up two years later and bought a half section beside the homestead. Lawrence was saved land, proved it up and got it at age 21. The railroad came in 1906. Israel homesteaded near his sons' farms and was required to spend a few months each year on his homestead, so he had a house on skids that he pulled over to the land in summer and then back to the sons in the winter.    Lawrence said they lived in 2 tents when they arrive in Daysland and lived in them until three weeks before Christmas when their house was finally ready for occupancy. It was bitterly cold, he remembers."

The 1906 census of Alberta shows Gunelius at section 8-45-17-W4M, his sons Emil at 10-45-17-W4M and Lawrence at 30-44-16-W4M. Another brother, John Anderson, had homesteaded at Bawlf just east of his father at NE36-44-17 W4M.

Homestead application of Israel Anderson

Sadly, on 7 March 1910, at age 80, Israel died before proving up his homestead application. 

1910 Post Card from Gunelius Anderson advising sister Sophia of Israel's death

Decades ago my uncle Bob Anderson and his son visited the rural Lutheran cemetery near Bawlf  where Israel is buried. A few years after this, while attending a kids' hockey tournament at nearby Daysland, my husband and I also paid Israel's gravesite a visit.

Two of His Male Anderson descendants visit Israel's burial location 

In 1998, in response to my letter to the Village of Bawlf, local resident and historical record-keeper Lil Bohmer sent me a considerable amount of information based on local knowledge of the family. Lil was a member of the same Bawlf Lutheran Church as the Andersons and was the record-keeper for the cemetery. She provided the burial locations for Israel as well as for Gunelius, his wife Sophia, their daughter Gina Reesor (1891-1928), son Emil (1884-1950) and son Alfred (1886-1954).

Lil went on to say: 

I found in the Daysland History book the enclosed information about Kenneth and Aleda Anderson. Also in the book were copies of maps showing land owners in the early 1900s. Another son of Gunelius and Sophia farmed north of Ohaton. He was known as Ike but a gentleman who knew him said he thought his given name was Israel - after his grandfather. The other son Lawrence, who farmed with Alfred later lived in Daysland. I found several people who remembered Gunelius and family but no one is left who would remember Israel. The house that the Andersons built on their farm was considered a beautiful place. Their neighbours and church friends were all there for Open House when it was completed. A few years ago that house was moved into Daysland to be a neat looking place yet. It was a 2 story. The fact that it had a kitchen nook and a dining room had impressed everyone. 

Israel's grandsons Clarence and Ingwald (sons of Andrew) homesteaded in the Lancer area of Saskatchewan, Canada a few years later. The wide open spaces of the Canadian prairies did not suit everyone. Some of the sons or their descendants ended up moving back south of the 49th parallel. The current crop of Andersons inhabiting Canada's wide open spaces primarily descend through the Israel/Andrew/Ingwald line. 

3 of Israel's sons backed by their sons about 1915: lower left my great grandfather Andrew Anderson in front of his son Clarence, lower centre Gunelius in front of his son Emil and lower right John in front of his son Victor. The picture was taken after Victor returned from fighting in World War I

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.)