Andrew L. Anderson, a prosperous and enterprising farmer on section 20, Granville township, is a native of Abbekos, Sweden, born October 7, 1854. His father, who bore the same name, was a fisherman of that town but is now deceased. The mother, however, still lives at the old home in Sweden.
Andrew Anderson spent his boyhood days in his native village and went with his father on his fishing trips-, not for pastime but for the purpose of earning a living. He was a young man in his twentieth year when he came to America. He felt that advancement in his native country would be slow and desired to enjoy the broader business opportunities of the new world. Making his way into the interior of the country he secured employment as a farm hand in Putnam county upon the farm of A. D. Fisher, who now lives near Granville. For three and a half years he remained and then returned to his old home in Sweden, when he again took up his abode in Putnam county and he worked for two and a hall years more at farm labor, and then in company with his brother-in-law, rented land and engaged in farming on his own account. A year subsequent he removed to La Salle county and rented a farm of Joel Hopkins just over the Putnam county line, continuing to operate that tract of land for ten years, in which period he saved his earnings, thus accumulating a competence that enabled him to purchase a farm for himself. In 1895 he bought the place that is now known as the John Foley farm, comprising one hundred and eighty-seven and a half acres of land. It was an improved farm, thus the farm was under cultivation and it had some buildings upon it but they -were old and the house was burned down three years before. Mr. Anderson built a new residence, has built a new barn and has laid many rods of tiling to the value of several hundred dollars, thus draining and enriching his land. In other ways he has improved the farm until it is today a valuable property and brings forth rich crops of the cereals best adapted to soil and climate. All that he has has been won through his own persistency of purpose and careful management and he is now successfully carrying on general farming, raising both stock and grain.
Mr. Anderson has found a most able assistant and helpmate in his wife, to whom he was married December 7, 1880. She bore the maiden name of Ingrid Matson, a native of Sweden. She is a sister of Lars Matson, who is living near Granville, and of whom mention is made elsewhere in this volume. She came to this country with her husband in 1877, after he had made a trip to the old world. Eleven children have been born of their marriage, of whom three died in infancy, while the eldest son, Anton, died at the age of twenty-one years. Those still living are: Elmer, who married Edith Nelson and is living on the Harper farm in Granville township; Herman, who is clerking in the Hopkins Bank in Granville; Nelson, Mildred, Carl, Bertha and Orville, all at home.
Mr. Anderson was reared in the faith of the Lutheran church but is now a member of the Congregational church at Granville. He votes with the republican party and is well informed on the great political questions, thus being able to support his position by intelligent argument. For two terms he served as school director but public office has had no attraction for him. He is a stanch advocate of the cause of temperance, which he supports both by precept and example, and his life is an honorable and upright one in harmony with his professions, being characterized by unfaltering fidelity to the principles which work for righteousness and for the good of the community.
Source: Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois authored by John Spencer Burt and W. E. Hawthorne in 1907, page 506.
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