Andrew Anderson

Although the Andersons didn't come to the United States until quite late, they are the first of my ancestors to call Minnesota their home. Andrew Ole Anderson was born in Norway on September 13, 1852. According to the 1910 and 1920 censuses he came to the United States in 1869. Second hand evidence also suggests that he came to Minnesota with his parents. He married Josephine Johnson in the first half of 1880. At the time of the Federal census of 1880 they lived in Hendrum, Polk County, later to become Norman County. Their first child Anna was born in December of 1882. In 1883 he became a naturalized citizen. They were still living there in 1895 but by the time of the 1900 census they were living in Hubbard County. They had nine children, one of whom is my grandmother Ida Anderson.

Around 1905 they moved to Itasca County. They started farming outside of Cohasset near an area called Wellers Spur. In September of 1908 Ida married Napoleon Nolette. The following year in September, Napoleon and Ida's first child, Pearl was born. Later in the same month, Andrew's wife Josephine committed suicide by drinking an insecticide called Paris Green. In 1910 his youngest daughter Hattie was living with the Nolette's.

That same year records show he owned a home in the village of Cohasset, where he lived with his sons. At the time he and his older sons Ole and Edward worked in the pail factory in Cohasset. By 1920 only his youngest son Walter was left living with him. Both worked in the woods at this time.

When my father Alden Nolette was young, he sometimes stayed with his grandfather in the country. Before my mother Jennie married Alden, she once went to the hospital in Grand Rapids with Alden's sister Vera and visited him. He appeared to be a good-natured person. In the last four years of his life he lived with his daughter Anna and her husband Joe Clairmont in Grand Rapids.

In ill health for sometime, he died with a stroke on July 24, 1940. He was nearly 88 years old. He was buried at Itasca Cemetery in Grand Rapids. Although his wife Josephine is also buried at Itasca Cemetery, they are not buried at the same place. He still had four daughters and four sons living at the time of his death. Also listed in the obituary from the Itasca County Independant are two siblings: Mrs. Otto Hanson of Ada and John Anderson of Fergus Falls.

David Nolette