Anderson, Mary 1860 - 1939

ANDERSON, JOHNSON

Posted By: Doris Hoffman (email)
Date: 8/6/2010 at 19:49:06

WAS A BIG SPRINGS PIONEER

Last Rites for Mrs. Mary Anderson
Held Last Friday

Funeral services for Mrs. Mary Anderson
of National City, Calif., who
passed away Sunday afternoon, Sept.
24th, at Paradise Valley sanitarium,
were held at the Nilson Funeral Home
at Alcester last Friday afternoon with
Elder Bert Rhoads of the Hawarden
Seventh Day Adventist church in
charge. Mrs. Anderson had been a
member of this denomination for
forty-one years. Mrs. Melvin Leaftedt
sang two of her favorite hymns.
The pall bearers were old friends and
neighbors, John Elving, Oscar Elving,
ictor Lundgren, Matt Thompson,
Arthur Lind and her nephew, Roy
Oden.
Services were held at National City,
Calif., Sunday afternoon, Sept. 24th.
Then according to Mrs. Anderson's
request, her daughter, Mrs. Frank
Ford, accompanied her remains back
to her old home at Alcester to be laid
to rest in Pleasant Hill cemetery.
Mary Johnson was born in Sweden
Dec. 5, 1860, being the second child in
family of eight children. When she
vas nine years old she came to America
with her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
John Johnson, and three brothers and
one sister, locating in Sioux City.
Four years later the family moved to
Big Springs township, near Alcester,
where with others from Sweden they
established the Scandinavian colony of
Big Springs. In later years she lived
o recount the stories of pioneering
days. When she was 19 years of age
she moved to Rawlins, Wyo., and later
went to Helena, Mont., where she was
married to John Anderson in 1889. To
this union were born two daughters,
both of whom survive her. They are
Geneva, now Mrs. Frank Ford of the
Paradise Valley Sanitarium, National
City, Calif., and Edna, now a member
of the English faculty of the Los
Angeles City College.
In 1914 Mrs. Anderson moved to
California to be near her daughter
Edna while she, attended the University
of California at Berkeley. In 1918
she was joined by her husband, who
died the following year. After his
death she moved to Paradise Valley
National City, where she lived until
death claimed her. Always a woman
of great bodily vigor and keen mentality,
it was her great affliction to
become crippled with arthritis 16 years
ago. However, until 1936 when she
fell and fractured her hip on Christmas
Day, she was able to keep up her
housework and enjoy her home in
which she took great pleasure. Most of
the past three years she spent at the
Paradise Valley Sanitarium. She became
more and more helpless until she
passed away at the advanced age of
78 years and 10 months.
She leaves to mourn her passing her
two daughters, one granddaughter,
Miss Iris Ford of Loma Linda, Calif.,
and two sisters, Mrs. Sophia Oden and
Miss Etta Johnson of Alcester. A
host of friends who admired her for
her courage under affliction and for'
her sterling worth mourn her passing.

The Hawarden Independent
Thursday, October 5, 1939
Hawarden, Iowa