Nels Anderson Family

Submitted by Arden Anderson, December 2020.

Nels Anderson arrived in the Cambridge area in the fall of 1893 with his brother, John (Jens) Anderson and his nephew, Andres Nicholas Nelson from Sweden. Nels married Ida Peterson on 27 February 1897 in Royalton. Nels and Ida had four children, Alma (b. 25 Aug 1898 in Pine City), Maynard George (b. 18 Jul 1900), Edwin John, my father, (b. 30 Aug 1902 in Pine City) and Alphie Ida (b. 18 Dec 1907).

Ida Peterson, Nel's wife, was the daughter of John (Jonas) Peterson and Dorothea Olofsdotter. They arrived in the Braham area in 1888 timeframe with two daughters, both born in Jamtland, Sweden. Ida Katarina was born 22 Jun 1880 and her sister, Anna born 12 Mar 1883. Jonas and Dorothea had two more children after arriving in Minnesota. Ellen, born 17 Dec 1889 and Ernest born 24 Jul 1896. They also raised another boy, son of a niece of Nels, by the name of Herman. These siblings of Ida married as follows. Anna married John Nordvall and had 9 children, some grandkids still live in the Braham/Cambridge area. Ellen married Nels Eklund and they lived in the Grass Lake area. Ernest married Swea Alenius and they eventually moved to the Minneapolis area.

I have a newspaper photo from the Braham Journal, 6 Feb 1975, showing the students of the "Clint District 14, Pine County School" in 1910. In the photo is my father, Edwin, his sister, Alma, and cousin Elvin Nordvall, the oldest of John and Anna Nordvall.

At some point, Jonas and Dorothea moved to Superior, Wis and Dorothea died on 31 Oct 1926. Jonas then moved to Grass Lake and lived with Ellen and Nels Eklund. Jonas died 13 Apr 1940 in Grass Lake.

Ida died in Duluth on 24 May 1926 and Nels died on 25 Feb 1933 in Duluth. All of these are buried in the Royalton Memorial Cemetery, near Brahm. I don't have obituaries for Ida and Nels.

Sometime between 1910 (documented by the newspaper photo) and 1918 (documented by Maynard's WW 1 Draft registration and the 1918 Duluth Directory), Nels and Ida sold the 120 acres and the family moved to Duluth, where Nels worked as a laborer in the concrete business. My dad, Edwin worked as a meat cutter for the rest of his life.

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Nels Anderson Family