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Note: [Lla&hia.ftw]
Joseph Anderson was born in Sweden and not in Gothenburg, Nebraska, as the 1870 census of Saunders County, Nebraska shows almost all of his family being born in Sweden excepting those born after 1862. They were all living in Saunders County, Nebraska in 1870 excepting their mother, Anna Peterson Anderson. Joseph was living in Swan's home in 1870.
Information shows that Joseph may have worked for the Nebraska railroads in 1870, and he may have met Lydia while being so employed. Joseph Anderson married Lydia "Wallander" in Saunders County, Nebraska on November 27, 1873. Her parents were listed as Olof Wallander and Cecelia Pearson. The marriage license shows them all of legal age and that no parental consent was then needed. They were not on the Saunders County census of 1880.
The 1880 census for Saunders County, Nebraska does not show a Joseph E. Anderson but does show a Joseph P. Anderson. There is a "J. Anderson" who was 67 years of age. Joseph would have been 27 then.
1880 census of Oakland, Burt County, Nebraska shows Joseph ("Josef" - age 3, farmer. born Sweden) and Lydia (age 22, born Sweden) living there with three children: Victor (age 5, born Nebraska), Alice (age 3, born Nebraska) and Henry (age 1, born Nebraska). Also living in their home was Henry Perine, male, single, born Illinois, and working on their farm. [12/23/02] Burt County is on the Missouri border and lies two counties north of Saunders County.
Joseph was not listed in the 1885 state census of Oakland, Burt County. Also, Theodore Leroy Anderson was born November 22, 1883 in Gothenburg, Dawson County, Nebraska, so they probably left Burt County right after the 1880 census.
The scant public records that I have perused in Harris County, Texas and in our law office pertaining to Joseph Anderson and Lydia Anderson do not mention these three earlier children: Victor, Alice or Henry. Henry must have died young, as Joseph and Lydia named their fifth child Henry. At least I now know how Aunt Alice Vivian Anderson got her given name; but, why was the first daughter named Madeline? Why was the first son named Victor and why wasn't that name carried forward by the descendants?
The Polk County, NE 1890 Gazetteer's Farmers' Listing shows several Andersons having the same initials as ours had. A "J.P. Anderson" and "J.E. Anderson" were then residing in Osceola, Polk County, NE. This could have been John P. and Joseph E. Anderson. Also in that town/precinct were Andrew Anderson Another John Anderson was in Stromsburg, as were a "F. Anderson."
However, during the same 1890-1891period, Dawson County's Farmers' List included a "J. Anderson" in Lexington and in Willow Island, Otto Anderson in Overton, S.P. Anderson in Willow Island, and a "F. Anderson" in Cozad.
To confuse the issue, the Saunders County 1890-1891 Business and Farmers' List shows an "And Anderson" (Andy? Andrew?), Otto Anderson (Weston), Peter A. Anderson, several "J. Anderson" and John Andersons (Weston, Ithaca, Fremont and Ceresco).
Joseph Anderson and wife, Lydia Wallander Anderson, were residing in Dawson County, Nebraska until 1892 when they must have read Lars Nelson's promotional material advertising land sales in Crosby, Harris County, Texas. Joseph and his son, Theodore Leroy Anderson (my grandfather), who was then age nine, took the train from Nebraska to Crosby (probably in the company of Mr. Lars Nelson) to look the town over.
In 1888, 1890 and 1891 Nebraska suffered terrible freezes and then droughts, and then locust attacks, and then price gouging by the railroads. Many Nebraska farmer lost their farms to the banks and just gave up.
It was this period of time that the Anderson family broke up also. Joseph and family went to Texas; John P. Anderson moved to St. Joseph, Missouri; Aleck Anderson moved to St. Louis, Missouri; however, Pete H. Anderson and Frank Anderson stayed in Gothenburg, Dawson County, Nebraska. Pete's son, Ira J. Anderson, moved to Sapulpa, Oklahoma and owned an oil company there in 1917. Their father, Swan P. Anderson, remained in downtown Gothenburg, having moved off their farm and conveying it to John P. Anderson.
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Theodore Leroy Anderson was born in 1883 in Dawson County, Nebraska, as was Albert Leonard Anderson (1888), Oscar Raymond Anderson (188?), and probably Henry W. Anderson. Arthur Wilburt Anderson was either born in Nebraska right before the train ride or in Crosby immediately after arriving here.
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Lars Nelson was a land broker promoting a Swedish settlement in Crosby, and most of the Swedes who moved here in 1892 were from Nebraska and Iowa and were getting away from the ice and snow (did they have an "Interstate Land Sales Act" in the 1890's?). However, they did not know about the gumbo-clay soils of the area, the amount of rain and/or mosquitoes. Some turned around but most stayed and made the best of it and thus developed the community of Crosby into what it is today.
Note that in 1892 the Texas and New Orleans Railroad tracts were in heavy usage, having been completed in August of 1860. (Reed, S.G. "A History of Texas Railroads" Clair Publishing Co, Houston, Texas 1941, page 145; Anderson, Terry "Crosby's Railroads - The Texas and New Orleans, The Southern Pacific" - Crosby High School history project under Mrs. Bonlyn Matthews.)
Texas had become a Republic in 1836 (Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836) and the last of the indian wars of Texas were restricted to West Texas and had almost ended in the late 1870's. (Sowell, A.J. "Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas" 1900; reprinted 1986 State House Press, Austin, Texas. Texas Ranger Thomas Galbreath's son, Isaac, was killed by indians in 1872 near Devine, Texas.)
And, on December 29, 1845, Texas was annexed into the United States of America, but the Republic of Texas' President Anson Jones did not relinquish control until February 19, 1846. ("The Handbook of Texas," Texas State Historical Association 1952, Vol. II, page 461.) Further, the Mexican War of 1846 wherein General Zachary Taylor invaded Mexico was ended on February 2, 1848. The Civil War (1861-1865) had long ago ended, Reconstruction laws ended, and the carpetbaggers were appropriately hung or run out of Texas; and times were ripe for the full colonization of Texas.
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