Rev Joseph A Anderson

ANDERSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/10/2009 at 10:09:38

Rev Joseph A Anderson is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America, having local charge in Boone, Iowa. He resides in the Des Moines district and is a young man of exceptional ability, being one of the most popular and best known clergymen in the Des Moines and Stanton districts, having served both districts, in the highest official capacity, his influence is broad and dominant and arises from the deep human sympathy, combined with an earnest desire to aid his fellow men and promoter the cause of Christianity.
Joseph Alfred Anderson was born in Sweden July 10, 1868, and is a son of J M and Louisa (Samuelson) Anderson, who were natives of the same country, but before their son Joseph was a year old the family circle was broken by the death of the mother and six years later the father left his native country and with his son Joseph came to America, locating in Des Moines, Iowa. Here the subject of this review became a student in the public schools and was afterward graduated in the Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois, with the class of 1888. He had thus acquired a good literary knowledge to serve as a foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of his theological learning, In 1891 he again entered his alma mater, where he won the degree of master of Arts, and in 1892, he was ordained as a minister of the gospel, since which time he has devoted his attention untiringly to the work of promulgating the great principles of Christianity which lead to the salvation of men.
Rev Anderson was at once given a church at Creston, Iowa, and there he remained for eight years, his labors proving effective in advancing the interests of his denomination. In the meantime he was elected to fill the office of secretary of the conference for a term of five years. He was also elected president of the Stanton conference district and capably filled that position for two years. He was likewise a member of the board of trustees for three years and has been elected twice as a delegate to the general council of his church, but served only once. Other sacred offices have been conferred upon him, for he was elected as president of the Des Moines conference district and is at the present time the incumbent in that office whereby he has largely extended the usefulness of the church and made its efforts more effective. As a pastor of the church in Boone he looks after the spiritual welfare of three hundred and fifty church members. Under his guidance the church is growing both numerically and spiritually and his work ins proving an important element in the moral development and progress of this part of Iowa.
On September 23, 1896, Mr Anderson was united in holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Ellen Carlson, a daughter of A G and Mary (Rydhold) Carlson, by who he had two children: Gerald and Lydia. Mrs Anderson is a native of Creston, Iowa, her birth having occurred on July 1879. She is an able assistant to her husband in his holy work and her labors in the church have been attended with good results. In his political views Mr Anderson is a Republican. He belongs to that class of citizens who, while realizing fully the importance of preparation for the spiritual world, is also cognizant of his duties in this life. He keeps well informed on the political questions of the day and votes as he believes right. His kindly disposition, humanitarian principles and broad sympathy have gained for him the confidence of many whom he has desired to help, while his logical and earnest utterances from the pulpit have had their effect upon many lives, but the influences of one who deals with the moral nature of man cannot be determined by any known rule or standard and it is not until the books of eternity are opened that the full measure of his life work will be known.

Ira Smith has always been loyal to duty and principle as has been demonstrated by his faithful service as justice of the peace of Moingona and his valiant defense of the Union’s cause during the Civil War. He is a pioneer of Boone county, where he has made his home since 1869, twenty years before the county had been organized, but during that period its growth had been comparatively small and frontier conditions still existed when Ira Smith took up his abode here.
He is a native of Waldo county, Maine, born December 8, 1831, and is a son of Owen and Annie (Fenderson) Smith, both of who were native of the Pine Tree state. The father was a millwright by trade and with his son, our subject, came to the west in 1856, settling in Jasper county, Iowa, where he worked at his trade until 1858. He then returned to Maine, settling in Penobscot county, where both he and his wife died.
Ira Smith, their son, was reared under the parental roof and to the common school system of his native county he is indebted for the educational privileges which he enjoyed. He was married in Jasper county, Iowa in 1857, to Miss Annie Slater, who was born in England October 9, 1839, and is a sister of John Slater, a brick manufacturer of Moingona. Unto our subject and his wife have been born five children: Charles W married Alice Munson and is a carpenter living in Moingona, Ira E married Ida Horton and resides in the city of Boone, Thomas R is a brakeman running out of Boone on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, Mary E is deceased, and a second Mary died in infancy
After his marriage Mr Smith worked a that carpenter’s trade in Jasper county, Iowa until 1862. In the meantime a dissension in the county over the question of slavery had brought on civil war and in that year Mr Smith with patriotic spirit offered his services to the government, enlisting as a member of company A, Second Iowa Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Hatch and Captain Charles C Horton. He took part in the engagements at Water Valley, Mississippi, in the fall of 1862, Coffeeville in December, the Grierson raid in April 1863, the engagements of Okolana, Birmingham, and Moline, that of Palo Alto, in April 1863, Jackson, Mississippi, July 13, 1863, and Coopersville in the month of November of that year. At that point Mr Smith knocked the supper table of Colonel Forest to pieces with a ten pound parrot shell. He afterward took part in the battles of Moscow, December 4, 1863, West Point, February 21, 1864, and Tupelo, July 13, 1864, At Colliersville, November 23, 1863. Mr Smith was accidentally wounded by a piece of blank cartridge which struck him in the face and caused the loss of the sight of one eye. He was honorably discharged at Washington, D C in November 1864.
Mr Smith then returned to Newton, Iowa, where he worked at the carpenter’s trade until he came to Boone county, in 1869. He became identified with building interests in this locality and worked at carpentering for four years, after which he returned to Jasper county, making that his place of residence for several years. His next home was in Kansas for four years fan then at Franklin, Nebraska, where he conducted a furniture and undertaking business, being one of the merchants and representative men of that town through fourteen years. In December 1895, he returned ot Boone county, settling in the village of Moingona, where he has since lived retired. He has been justice of the peace there for the past five years and his decisions indicate strict impartiality and careful attention tot eh points in evidence. In politics he is a Republican and has been a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, while both he and his wife are identified with the Methodist Episcopal church of Moingona. Mr Smith is a prominent and well to do citizen here, of social manners and genial disposition, and has won many warm friends.

1902 Boone County History Book