(Parents of Hedda Carolina Anderson Hansen)
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| Anders Gustaf Anderson |
In
the little village of Solvarbo, Dalarna, Sweden on November 23, 1845, Anders
Gustaf Anderson was born. Eric Ersson and Lisa Larsson Ersson were the parents
of four children, Stina Lisa, Karl Erik, Lars Johan, and Anders Gustaf.
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| Hedda Christina Romlin Anderson |
Three
years later, Hedda Cristina was born to Johan Andersson Romlin and Christina
Caroline Torslund Romlin on June 13, 1848. She was the third child in a family
of twelve children. Johan and Christina raised their family in the little town
of Gustaf, Kopparberg, Sweden. Carl Johan, Fredenka, Hedda Christina, Anders
Gustaf, Fustaf Adolph, Eric August, Emma Carolina, Anna Caterine, Albert (died
as a child), Ann Mathilda (died as a child), Albert (died as a child), and
Albert Leonard were the children born to the Romlin’s.
Anders
Gustaf Anderson and Hedda Christina Romlin were married on December 1, 1870.
They made their home in Gustaf where they raised five beautiful children, Hedda
Carolina, Gustaf Erik, Anna Mathilda, Selma Kristina, and Anna Sophia. Little
Anna Mathilda died from diphtheria when she was only two years old and was
buried there in Gustaf Sweden.
The
Anderson family didn’t have much of worldly good, but they had a lot of love
and respect in their home. They always had plenty to eat and were reasonably
well dressed. Their home was always neat and clean.
The
Mormon Missionaries came and taught the gospel to the Andersons. They were
always made welcome and enjoyed their stay with them. The family was always
happy to have the missionaries come and felt that they were greatly blessed
both spiritually and temporally by their presence. On March 3, 1887, Hedda
entered the waters of baptism and on November 11, 1887 Anders Gustaf followed
her ecample.
In
1890, when Gustaf Erik was just 17 years old, he borrowed money from his father
and came to America. He went to Ogden, Utah and worked wherever he could find a
job, and for very meager wages. He saved enough money in three years to send
for two of his sisters, Hadda and Selma. They joined him in Ogden in June of
1893. They started work immediately so that they could send the money home to
help their mother, father, and sister Anna come to America. Selma worked in the
home of bishop James Taylor and her sister Hadda worked for Lofdahis, who was a
counselor to Bishop Taylor. It was very hard at first because they didn’t speak
any English, but they were young and it didn’t take them long to learn. In the
home Hadda worked in, they spoke Swedish so it took her a little longer to
learn English. When they saved enough money, they sent for the rest of their
family to join them. What a wonderful time it was when the family was reunited
and they were all together again.
Gustaf
had rented a farm, part of the old Adams farm at West Weber and it was here
that their mother, father and sister Anna came in 1894. They all lived together
there for two years before moving to Central, Idaho. While they were in Ogden
they worked in different places. Their wages then were very meager.
Anders
and his son Gustaf went to Idaho and homesteaded in Central. In 1896 the rest
of the family joined them.
This
was a very hard and trying time for them. Water had to be hauled for many
miles. In the winter-time, they melted the snow for water. In the summer, they
would only cultivate and plant small acreage as implements and horses were
scarce. The grain, when ripe, was cut by hand with a scythe. Hedda would gather
it and bind it in shocks by hand. They thrashed it on the floor and sifted it
through bed springs. The men would go to other places and work in the hay field
and get paid in hay in order to get enough feed for the few animals they had.
They would walk to Chesterfield, an older settlement which was about 18 miles
from Central to work.
Every
year the crops would freeze, but everyone struggled on. But as the country got
settled it froze less and has now nearly quit freezing.
In
the summer they got their water from the canal that ran through their land.
They would get it in buckets and tubs and store it in the cellars for use
during the day. Later systems were dug and rocked and cemented and irrigating
water was run in there for domestic use.
The
system of water was used until the people could afford to drill wells. The
people were very poor. They really pioneered.
One
of the first things they did was get a Sunday school started and they were
content and happy and would live their religion and would walk to Sunday
school. Before they got their own ward in Central, they belonged to Lund Ward.
It was an older settlement. Hedda and Anders would walk four miles to Lund and
back home again to go to church. The first Sunday school in Central was held in
a little log cabin.
Many
times Hedda would cry for the hardships they were going through and the
homesickness for the old country. Hadda and her husband Erik went to Sweden one
summer and Gustaf went back to Sweden on a mission but the rest of the family
was never able to return.
As
time went on, family members married and made homes of their own. Hedda was the
first Relief Society President in the Central Ward when it was organized in
1903. She served well and faithful until January 1905, then was released due to
ill health. She passes away July 1, 1905 at the age of 57.
Anders
lived in a two room log cabin only a short distance from his daughter Hadda.
His family who lived close looked after him. He had a strawberry patch and in
the summer-time he picked strawberries and sold them, which was about his only
income. Anders also would raise some garden stuff, enough for his own use. He
would be out early in the morning to pick the strawberries before the robins
got them. He was very independent and would do what he could to help himself.
He mixed and baked bread and cooked his own meats.
In
the fall Erik, Hadda’s husband would go to the canyon and bring back wood for
him so that he would have firewood for the winter. When the wood was delivered
Anders would saw and chop it all by hand, and then stack it in the wood shed in
neat tiers. He always had a dog which was his constant companion. Her name was
Melva.
His
granddaughter Alda remembers… “Grandpa would come to our house two or three
times a day, and when he didn’t come, we wondered if he wasn’t well. My sister
and I likes to go see him and take some food to him at times, he always had a
treat for us, peppermint candy or “Dutch cookies.” Mother would clean house for
him and we went along because it was always interesting to see the things he
had. As he grew older, he used a cane to help him in walking as his eye sight
wasn’t too good and the cane kept him from falling. He always left it outside
when he came to our house, so once in a while my sister, Mae, and I would hide
his cane around the corner of the house just to see him. Sometimes he wouldn’t
think it was funny and when he found it, he would shake it at us. But, we
weren’t too frightened because we knew he couldn’t catch us. We didn’t do it to
be mean, but just to play a joke.
He
didn’t learn the English language too well and it was hard for him to express
himself. It was usually English and half Swedish. But, he was sincere in what
he said and did.”
Anders
Anderson died May 28, 1931 at the age of 86 and was buried in the Central
Cemetery next to his wife, Hedda. They were hard working and loving people who
would do anything for anyone. A wonderful legacy they have left for their
posterity to follow.
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