John Anderson
Walnut Grove general store clerk, law student, drug store proprietor, and postmaster.
Mr. Anderson, of the firm of Fitch & Anderson, and W.H. Owens, of Walnut Station, were in our city last Sunday on their way home from Chicago where they had been with several car loads of beef cattle. They report the market as being overdone, in consequence of which it is a hard matter to sell to any advantage. – New Ulm Review (New Ulm, Minnesota), November 20, 1878.
John Anderson isn’t a character in the published Little House books, but he appears in the Walnut Grove section of Wilder’s handwritten Pioneer Girl memoir that takes place after the Ingallses have returned to Walnut Grove from Burr Oak. Laura wrote that Mr. Anderson and his wife Anna (her name was actually Carrie) were newlyweds and lived in the little house the Ingallses used to live in, and that Mrs. Anderson was pretty with “blue eyes and hair more golden than Mary’s.” One day, after Laura and Mary had visited Mrs. Anderson and found her crying, Ma and Mrs. Nelson said that Mrs. Anderson needed to spend more time in the store with her husband, because another woman, “Teeney Peterson” was hanging around him, and she had tried to get Mr. Anderson to marry her before he married his wife, and she was trying to cause trouble. Carrie Anderson must have heard what she should do, because Mary and Laura started seeing both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson in the store.
“Teeney Peterson” from Pioneer Girl may have been Mary Peterson, a young servant of Josephine & John Fitch’s who was enumerated as living in their household on the 1880 census. Mary was only nineteen at the time and had been born in Minnesota; both her parents were born in Norway.
John Henry Anderson was born September 2, 1854, in Pecatonica (Winnebago County) Illinois, one of five children of Henrik Andersson (1825-1917) and Hilda Samuels Anderson (1930-1911), who came to the United States from their native Sweden in 1851, settling in Carver County, Minnesota. John had siblings Andrew, Charlotte, and Johanna; another Anderson child died in infancy.
Educated in Carver, Anderson came to North Hero Township in early 1873 with Gustav Sunwall, opening a general merchandise store in Walnut Station. Sunwall soon returned to Carver, and Anderson went into partnership with John R. Fitch, running a general merchandise store at the corner of Main and Sixth Streets on Block 10. On May 4, 1876, John Anderson married Carrie Pedersdatter Botten (often Americanized as Button) in Cottonwood, Minnesota. They had children: Frank Henry (1879-1972) – born in Walnut Grove, Rodney John (1882-1962), Neil Elmer (1884-1971) and Hulda Lenore (1887-1966).
In January 1879, the partnership of Fitch & Anderson was dissolved, and Anderson spent six months studying law with David Thorp. In August of that year, John Anderson and Dr. Robert Hoyt built a drug store in Walnut Grove. Almost immediately, Anderson became Postmaster of Walnut Station and the Post Office was moved to the drug store building. That November, Anderson ran for Redwood County auditor against I.M. Van Schaack, but lost the election.
In 1882, the Andersons left Walnut Grove and moved to Pembina County, Dakota Territory (North Dakota). John Anderson’s time in Pembina County can be gleaned from the 1889 biography below. From 1890 to 1897, Anderson served as Register of Deeds in Pembina County, then taking a job as cashier with Farmers Bank of St. Thomas. In 1896, the Andersons moved to Walhalla, where John was engaged as cashier of Citizens Bank there. The Andersons later moved to Harlowton, Montana.
In December 1918, Carrie Anderson went to nurse their daughter Hulda (who had married Scott Cameron) through influenza in Linton, North Dakota, and although Huda recovered, Carrie died there of heart trouble at age 63.
Following his wife’s death, John moved to Bismarck, North Dakota, and made his home with son Frank. John Anderson died in Bismarck on December 12, 1928. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bismarck, North Dakota.
John H. Anderson, the register of deeds of Pembina county, North Dakota, is one of the best known business men of that locality. He was born in Pecatonica, Winnebago county, Illinois, September 2, 1854, and is a son of Henry and Hilda Anderson, who were both natives of Sweden, but who came to the United States at an early day. Our subject remained at home attending school until he was eighteen years of age, when he began clerking in a general merchandise store at Carver, Minnesota. A short time later, in company with G. Sunwall, he engaged in the general merchandise business at Walnut Grove, Redwood county, Minnesota. Eighteen months later they sold out and our subject afterward re-engaged in business there in company with John Fitch and for six months devoted his attention to the study of law with attorney David M. Thorp. At the expiration of that time he engaged in the drug business at Walnut Grove and continued in this until May 19, 1882, also serving as postmaster from August 1, 1878, until May 19, 1882. On the date last mentioned he sold out and removed to the Red River Valley, settling at St. Thomas, Pembina county, North Dakota. There for eighteen months he clerked for different merchants, and then for fourteen months he lived on a claim which he had pre-empted. At the expiration of that time he “proved up” and returned to St. Thomas. He engaged in clerking from July 1, 1886, to January 1, 1887, then for several months was idle. On the 17th of April, 1887, he formed a partnership with M.W. Hanson and they opened a general merchandise store at St. Thomas, which they still carry on. In November, 1888, Mr. Anderson was elected register of deeds of Pembina county on the democratic ticket, and on the 5th of December following he removed to Pembina to take charge of the office.
Mr. Anderson is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity. He has taken an active part in public affairs, and any laudable home enterprise received his aid and encouragement. he was the first chairman of the supervisors of St. Thomas township, and has been village treasurer of St. Thomas ever since the village was incorporated.
Mr. Anderson was married in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, May 4, 1876, to Miss Carrie Button, a daughter of Peter F. and Randi Button, who were both natives of Norway. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are the parents of the following-named children– Frank H., Rodney J., Neil Elmer and Hulda Lenore. — Illustrated Album of Biography of the Famous Valley of the Red River of the North and the Park Regions of Minnesota (Chicago: Alden, Ogle & Co., 1889): 736-737.
John & Anna Anderson (Carrie Anderson) (PG)
Teeney Peterson (PG)