Olaus Anderson was born November 1, 1857 in Thoten, Norway.   He came to America in 1876. He made a small chest by hand, even making the nails to put it together with and we still have this chest.   In it, he placed his few personal belongings and some food for the boat trip, mostly bread and cheese.   He arrived in New York with fifty cents in his pocket.   He could speak no English.   A porter wanted to carry his chest for him, but he was fearful of having to pay him for carrying it and thus lose his precious fifty cents, so he clung to it.   He had bought passage from Norway to Davis, Illinois, where an uncle or cousin of his lived.   He traveled by train for three days to get to Davis, having no food to eat -- only water to drink and when he finally arrived at his destination, he still had his chest and his fifty cents.   He was a silversmith by trade, but I think he went into farming with his uncle (or cousin) at this point in his life.

A few years ago I saw the pages in Grandma Anderson's Bible.   There, Grandpa's name is listed as "Olaus Andreasen" and her name as "Berte Matheisen".   I believe when they came to this country and went through Ellis Island, the men could probably not understand Norwegian and wrote their names down as "Anderson" and "Mathison".   They were always fearful of being sent back to Norway, so they just adopted the names they were given.

Bertha Mathesen was born October 1, 1854 in Thoten, Norway.   She came to America in 1880.   They were married in Davis, Illinois on November 22, 1880.

I do not know very much about their early childhoods.   Grandpa was an avid skier until a friend of his was killed while skiing down a mountain one day and after that he never skied again.   Grandma was apparently taught all the usual homey crafts and she brought her spinning wheel and loom to America with her.   She used to take the raw wool -- spin it into yarn, use the loom to make the cloth, then make it into clothes for the family.   She could also knit and crochet and we often received mittens, scarves or caps at Christmas time that she had knit for us.   I remember a "Granny Square" afghan that she made that was always on her sofa.

They apparently lived in Davis, Illinois until about 1892, when they moved to Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and in 1898 to Webb, Iowa -- then to Beloit, Wisconsin in about 1903, where they lived until their deaths.   Grandpa died at age 86 and Grandma, at age 93.

To this union were born nine children:

1. Morris Albert, born August 15, 1881 at Davis, Illinois

He never married and stayed at home until Grandma died.   He worked at the Beloit Iron Works all of his life.   I remember Uncle Morris as a fat jolly man -- who had all his teeth capped with gold and always drove a large Buick car.   He used to come out to our farm and visit often, and he always brought an enormous appetite with him.   He could eat a whole chicken or a large steak with all the trimmings and not be a bit uncomfortable.   He preferred to talk to adults and never had much time for the children.   Grandma never allowed any liquor in her home, but the "boys" always kept some out in the garage so, all male visitors always made trips to the garage.   Children were not allowed out there and we always thought the men were working on the cars and we would be in the way!

Uncle Morris never had any girl friends that I ever heard of.   He worked, saved his money, had his little "nip" now and then, and his car.   When Grandpa and Grandma were both dead, he bought the family home and the lot next door from the remaining heirs, paying them cash.   Each got $1500.00 as their share.   Some years later, he sold the house, bought a very tiny house and he and Uncle Oscar lived there for the rest of their lives.   He drank more and more after his retirement and finally died of cancer of the bladder in 1950.

2. Peter Necoli was born July 17, 1883 at Davis, Illinois

He like to hunt and fish and kept the family in much needed food.   He married and had one daughter. They lived in Delavan, Wisconsin.   Peter died of pneumonia on February 25, 1917, at the age of 33.

3. Inga Marie was born on April 11, 1885 at Davis, Illinois.

She never married.   She had gone to Chicago to work and no one seems to know what she did.   She was found on the floor of her apartment with the gas turned on, but not lit.   Whether it had gone out or not, no one knows.   She was taken to a hospital, but died of "pneumonia" and "brain fever", the doctor said, on May 9, 1906 at the age of 21.

4. Willie Frederick was born March 21, 1887 in Davis, Illinois.

He went to Montana and met a girl there named Frieda Linderman.   Her mother owned a restaurant there.   She could peel a hundred pounds of potatoes in four hours, quite a feat.   When she died, she left them quite a bit of money.   They farmed in Billings, Montana for seventeen years, having only one good crop in all those years.   They had four children; Bertha, Orval, Max and Darleen.   About 1934, they came back to Wisconsin and settled in Racine, Wisconsin where Uncle Bill worked in a factory.

Bertha married Al Haase and they lived in Madison.   They had eight children.   Al died in 1976 and Bertha died in 1980, after having open-heart surgery.

Orval served as a tail gunner on a B52 bomber in the Air Force during World War II.   After the war he married Harriet, a nurse, and settled in Racine, Wisconsin.   They had three children.   He died in 1976, while receiving an experimental drug to dissolve clots, after having a heart attack.

Max served in the Army during World War II.   After the war, he married Peg Oertel and they had six children.   They lived in Racine.   I think he worked for the Telephone Company.   He died in 1984 of a heart attack.

Darleen married Melvin Veto and they had one child.   They lived in Racine, Wisconsin.

5. Oscar Bennett was born October 1, 1889 in Davis, Illinois.

I remember Uncle Oscar with much fondness, although we only saw him once a year, or so.   He was always a delight and fun to be around.   He went to college, but I don't know where, or for how long.   In 1909, at the age of twenty, he went to work for the YMCA and he worked for them until his retirement, starting in Evansville, Wisconsin.   Then, from 1910 to 1914, he worked for them in Columbus, Nebraska and from 1914 to 1931 in Lincoln Nebraska, from 1931 to 1941 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and finally, from 1941 to 1945, in Philadelphia.   He took an official leave of absence from 1945 to 1948 to take care of Grandma during her last years.   She had pneumonia in 1945 and after that became very senile and needed constant care.   He stayed with her in Beloit until her death in 1947.   Later, when he retired at age sixty-five, he moved back to Beloit, Wisconsin and lived with Uncle Morris.   He died in Beloit.

He was a tall, well built, muscular man, over six feet tall and over two hundred pounds; good looking, and he always had an interesting story to tell us.   He always drove a big, black, Lincoln car of a new model and we, as children, thought that was an ultimate goal in life.   He excelled in all sports and kept himself physically fit.   Four times he went to Europe to be a judge in the Olympics, usually judging the swimming competitions.

He met Sonja Henie at the Olympics over there and never ceased to sing her praises.   Uncle Oscar was an excellent swimmer himself.

We still have many of his medals for that and basketball.   He was also a 32nd Degree Mason, and was very proud of that accomplishment.   After his retirement, he contracted Diabetes and, like many of his other brothers, he developed a liking for a "wee drop", now and then.   I am not sure, but I think he died from cancer.   He had never married.   He was a generous man, never forgetting a graduation or an important occasion.

He could seldom be present, but always wrote and sent a gift -- usually some money -- which of course, we thought was wonderful!   He offered to send my father to college, buy his wardrobe, pay the tuition, etc. , but my father decided that he should not take off the four years required and that he should set about earning a living.   In later years, my father regretted his decision and wished he had gone to college like Uncle Oscar had wanted him to.

6. Charley Harry was born January 14, 1892, at Sioux Rapids, Iowa.

I do not remember him too well, as he died when I was ten years old.   He was always called "Good Time Charley".   He had many friends and was always ready to go out and have a good time.   He married a girl named Grace Evans and bought her a new house and furniture, but the marriage was doomed from the start.   She had always lived at home with her mother and didn't want to leave "Mama."   This was such a shame as he was so much in love with her.   One night, he and the boys were out partying, and the car went off the road into the ditch and it hit a telephone pole.   Charley was thrown out of the car and he hit the pole and died instantly. I remember his funeral, which was very sad -- everyone in the church was crying, including his brothers, parents and friends.   He was forty-four years old.   He had worked as a pattern maker at Beloit Iron Works.   They never had any children.

7. Mabel Olivia was born April 2, 1894, in Sioux Rapids, Iowa.

I was only about eight years old when she died, so I don't remember too much about her.   She married a man named Clarence Goodall and they lived in Harvard, Illinois.   He ran a filling station and Gas Company there.   They had one daughter named Dorothy.   Mabel died January 31, 1934, of cancer of the uterus.   She was forty years old.   Clarence remarried and had some other children, but after Mabel's death, we rarely saw him, so I don't know anything more about his life.   I do know that Clarence's mother put all of Aunt Mabel's furniture; dishes, linens, etc., in storage for Dorothy, and kept them until she was grown and married.

She said they were rightfully hers and no one else was going to have them.   I remember Uncle Clarence as a good looking, fun-loving man.   Dorothy, I have seen, now and then through the years, at funerals.   She is a blonde, blue-eyed, nice person.   She is tall and looks typically "Anderson", much the way her mother and grandmother looked when they were young.   She and her husband lived in Florida, where she stayed on after his death.   They have five children.

8. Olive Matilda was born April 7, 1896, at Sioux Rapids, Iowa.

She married Leo Lynch and they lived in Beloit all of their lives.   As long as I can remember, they lived at 748 Vernon Avenue.   He worked at a factory and, as they had a nice home and furniture and clothes, he must have been a successful person.

Leo was Catholic and Aunt Ollie became a Catholic when she married him.   The rest of the family had been raised as devout Lutherans and, in that day and age, this was quite a thing.   The family accepted her decision, however, and she was a very good Catholic, working as long and tirelessly for her Catholic church, as her mother did for Our Savior's Lutheran church in Beloit.   Grandma went to church every Wednesday night, Sunday mornings and Sunday nights most of her life, insisting that the children who were home go with her.   When my father grew up, he rarely went to church, saying that he had had enough religion as a child to last him for his lifetime.   He would go on special occasions and he read the Bible faithfully at home.   In his retirement years, he did go to a church in Monticello, Wisconsin.

Aunt Ollie and Uncle Leo had three children; Phyllis, Paul and Mary Anne.   Paul was a Navy pilot during World War II.   He never married, and he was killed on a training mission in Florida in the 1940's.   He was an extremely handsome man.   Phyllis was a beautiful girl and in her late teens she was selected Miss Runner-up in the Beloit Centennial Celebration.   She married a handsome man from South Dakota.   They decided to drive to South Dakota on their honeymoon to visit his parents.   Somewhere between Beloit and South Dakota, I don't remember where, their car went off the road, down a big embankment and caught on fire.   Phyllis was killed and he survived, but was very badly burned.

Mary Anne was a very pretty little dark-haired girl.   She grew up in Beloit, married Private Ronald Bell on March 24, 1951.   When he got out of Service, they lived in Beloit and he worked for the Telephone Company.   While he was repairing lines one day, someone turned the juice on, and he was thrown to the ground, breaking both his heels.

He was never able to climb poles again and they bought a tavern and motel resort up North, in Mercer, Wisconsin.   They had four children.   We have never seen them except at Aunt Ollie and Uncle Leo's funerals, but my brother Calvin stopped to see them once on his way North to fish or go deer hunting.   Uncle Leo died in 1971 and Aunt Ollie died in 1973.

9. My father, Olof Clarence Dewey Anderson was born on August 15, 1898, at Webb, Iowa.

About 1903, the family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin.   They bought a house in Beloit and the lot next to it and from then on, Grandma always raised vegetables and flowers.   She took in washings for other people and as a young boy, my father had to deliver the clean laundry to people.   He sure hated that job!   It wasn't long before he had a paper route to earn extra money.   After he graduated from High School he worked at Fairbanks & Morse Company, in Beloit.

2007-PS to This I Remember story for the Anderson Family

This past summer a distant relative of Gustav Anderson visited me.   Gustav was a brother of Olaus, not an uncle as we thought.   Gustav's daughter, Emma , was her Grandmother.   She has documentation of all of these facts.   Gustav and Kristine came to America in 1872, although no record of Kristine has ever been found in the USA.   Oleane came in 1870 and Olaus in 1876.   Ellis Island did not open until 1890, before that it was called Castle Gardens, but she found that they came to Quebec, down the Great Lakes and on to the Midwest.   All had destination Davis, IL except Olaus, who came to LaCrosse, WI.

Their father was Andreas Johannessen and his father was Johan Andersen.   That could be where the name Anderson comes from.   It was the practice before 1870 to give the child a first name, then as the last name, to add the father's first name plus son for a boy or datter for a daughter.   Thus, Olaus became Olaus Andreason.   Grandma Anderson's name in Norway was Beathe Matteasdatter.   Her father was Matteas Christeansen.   Her mother was Petronella Pedersdatter.   Her Grandfather was Peder so he was Peder Olson.

Andreas Johannessen, born in 1808, married Oline Christophersdatter on Apr 23, 1833, and her father was Christopher Englbretsen.   Oline was born in 1812.   They had 10 children:

1. Anna Marthea, Dec 11, 1833
2. Christiana , birth date unreadable, but she was chrtistened May 29, 1836
3. Johanne Marie, born Jan 24, 1840
4. Ole born Jun 26, 1842
5. Anthon, born Jan 11, 1845
6. Kristianne Christianne, born Oct 14, 1847
7. Oleane, born Jul 8, 1850
8. Gustav, born Feb 27, 1853
9. Ole, born Dec 10, 1855
10. Olaus, born Nov 1, 1857

We never knew Grandpa had all of these siblings.

I was happy to learn of all of these things. They all make my story truer. The only question still is why they took the name of Anderson, and we shall probably never know.