L.S. Anderson

ANDERSON, GREEN, BLAIR, FRAZIER, HINMAN, KEELER, LLOYD

Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall
Date: 9/15/2008 at 05:56:32

L. S. ANDERSON.

For six decades L. S. Anderson, of Lake Mills, has been a resident of Winnebago county, having come here many years before the city of Lake Mills was laid out. He has a good trade as a coal dealer and his business interests are capably managed.

A native of Indiana, he was born in Zanas, July 3, 1842, and is a son of John S. and Mary (Green) Anderson, also natives of the Hoosier state. The father engaged in cabinetmaking until his removal to Winnebago county, Iowa, at which time he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land, including what became the town site of Lake Mills. Subsequently he purchased an eighty acre tract adjoining his original farm. He followed agricultural pursuits here until 1865, when he removed to Iowa Falls, where he engaged in the draying business for a few years. Still later he farmed successively in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and eventually settled in Oregon just north of the California line. The last years of his life were spent at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Lovisa Blair. He is buried in Lakeview, Oregon. The mother of our subject died in Indiana when he was but a child and the father was married a second and a third time. Of his nine children but three survive. Lovisa, now Mrs. Thomas 0. Blair, of Reno, Nevada; Belle, who married William Frazier and resides near Reno; and L. S. The last named attended the common schools of Indiana until he was fourteen years old and in 1856 came with the family to Winnebago county. He worked for his father on the home farm until he was twenty-one years of age, when he purchased one hundred and twenty acres in Center township. After farming this place for eight years he carried mail to Northwood for twelve years and subsequently was for five years a grocer in Lake Mills and for two years engaged in the livery business. During the last quarter of a century, however, he has been in the coal business and as the result of his energy and his careful attention to all the details of his business he has accumulated a competence.

In 1867 Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Olive A. Hinman, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Hinman, natives of Vermont and early settlers of Lake Mills. Both are now deceased. Mrs. Anderson passed away July 22, 1902, and is buried in the Lake Mills cemetery. She was the mother of seven children, as follows: James A., who is married and resides in Alberta, Canada; Mabel, the widow of Joseph Keeler and a resident of Lake Mills; Frank S., who is married and lives at Verndale, Minnesota; June, now Mrs. R. W. Lloyd, of Verndale; John Milton, a dentist practicing in Minneapolis; Florence, also a resident of Minneapolis; and Harry, who died when three years old.

Mr. Anderson believes in the basic principles of the republican party but is also convinced that the qualifications of a candidate are likewise of great importance and often, especially at local elections, votes independently. He has held every town office save those of mayor and justice of the peace. He served as councilman and as a member of the school board and for several years was election judge. The fact that he has been so often chosen by his fellow citizens for positions of trust indicates the entire confidence which is justly reposed in his integrity and capability. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic blue lodge and Royal Arch chapter.

His has the distinction of being the oldest living settler in the north part of the county, as he arrived here July 13, 1856, sixty-one years ago. He remembers well the pioneer conditions which prevailed at that time — conditions in marked contrast to those of the present — and he takes great satisfaction in the knowledge that as farmer and business man he has had a part in the development of the county. Although he is now almost seventy-five years of age he is still vigorous in mind and body and is still doing well his share of the world's work.

~History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa; Pioneer Publishing Co.; 1917; pg 6-7