General Notes

Anders and Anne possibly arrived in the United States in 1871. According to a letter written to Darrel Bonny, they stayed for a while in Chicago. If so, they arrived during the cleanup following the massive Chicago Fire of 1871.

The 1880 Census shows and Andrew Anderson, age 56 from Norway, and wife Annie, age 60, also from Norway, living in Lodi, Mower County, Minnesota, which agrees with the letter written to Darrell Bonny regarding living in Adams, Mower County. In the next county to the west, Freeborn, there is an Olena Anderson living in the household of Christopher Johnson (possible relative?).

Anders, Anne and the children arrived in Minnesota during good times. The Civil War was over, the weather was good, production was good, land was relatively cheap. By 1873 when the big Panic struck, many people were giving up on their farms and the railroads had stopped building through the state of Minnesota, many having gone bankrupt. Soddies were the common form of habitat in the 1870's and 1880s, gradually being replaced by tar paper houses. By the 1880s the weather was good again, only to be followed by a severe drought in the mid-1890s. Many young people left the farm for the city; this was especially true for girls for whom the future on the plains seemed especially bleak. By 1910 the estimated cost of starting a farm was $1500 ($20,000 in 1995 dollars).

Freeborn and Mower Counties have death records which may match those of Anders and Annie or Anna early in the 20th century.

The Barc Pera arrived on Grosse Ile, Quebec, Canada in 1871, the only ship from Norway to North America with names which seem to match the Andersons. Gross Ile was Quebec's Quarantine Station. Here immigrants were separated into healthy and unhealthy groups and quarantined if necessary. Even the healthy had to stay a while and wash their clothes at "The Old Wash House." The Andersons probably traveled to Chicago or Duluth as soon as they could and from there to Minnesota but there are no border crossing records to confirm this. They may have also traveled entirely overland from Quebec to northern Minnesota.

In Freeborn County, there is an 1875 Naturalization Record for an Anders Anderson who says he filed his Letters of Intent in Mower County. If the date and person are correct. Anders arrived before the rest of his family or the five year rule was overlooked or this is not our Anders. There is an Anders living in Northwest Mower County, not far from Freeborn County and from its county seat of Albert Lea. There is no BLM record of an Anders Anderson purchasing land in Mower County but there is an Anders Anderson purchasing land in Freeborn County (5th Meridian, Township 104N, 19W, in August on 1875.

According to Letter from Martha Johnson to Blaine and Helen Bonny, dated 12-27-1970, in response to notification of the death of Amelia Paulson, James Paulson and wife Olena lived briefly in Chicago with her family, in the fall, before moving on to Utah.