****************************************************************************
File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.

These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format 
without the written consent of the author at http://fulton.ilgenweb.net.

****************************************************************************

Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

****************************************************************************

The Biography of Andrew M. ANDERSON 

Transcribed exactly according to the original complete text by Joan Achille and Alice Stipak. 

[Surnames: ANDERSON, HALL, ROBINSON, THOMAS, WOOD] 

[starting on page 767] 

    
ANDERSON, Andrew M., proprietor of the blacksmith and repairing establishment and agricultural implement depot at Ipava, Ill., is one of the energetic and successful business men of this section of Fulton County He has earned his present standing by hard, unceasing and intelligent labor, but at the same time is fully alive to the unusual opportunities which America presents to those of foreign birth, and his gratitude is warmly appreciated by his many friends and the patrons of his growing business. Mr. Anderson is still a young man, having been born at Aamot Modum, Norway, on the 25th of March, 1873. He received his schooling in his native land, and there entered upon the blacksmith's trade. 
    
In 1890 Mr. Anderson emigrated to America, being drawn to the great Northwest, which was already thickly populated by his countrymen, who there found implanted their own native industries--agriculture and lumbering. The youth of seventeen, endowed with ambition, common sense and rugged health, first settled at Belgrade, Minn. In order "to get his bearings" and determine upon his future course, he visited his brother Carl and a married sister, Stina, wife of Jacob Thomas, after which he was employed on a farm for a year. He then entered the great Red River Valley on the western border of Minnesota, to engage in his trade of blacksmithing, where he was soon after given the foremanship of a large repairing shop. He was thus employed for about five years, going into the pineries of Wisconsin and Minnesota during the winter months. For a time thereafter Mr. Anderson traveled through the country further south, [page 768] searching for a favorable location. He finally decided in favor of Mason County, Ill., and remained there for about two years. 
    
In 1899 Mr. Anderson located for business at Ipava, renting a blacksmith shop and adding to the work of the trade that of general repairing. In 1903 his venture had so prospered that he bought property of Noah Hall, whose business he later purchased, and now carries a complete line of agricultural implements, also dealing in surreys and buggies, hardware and wire fence (Page's--a specialty), and paints and oils. His business, in its many branches, increased to such proportions that for its accommodation he bought the building formerly occupied by Oliver Wood & Son, and at present has one of the most complete establishments for supplying the farmer with anything in the line of vehicles or implements, or for repairing them, to be found in Fulton County. 
    
On June 2, 1896, Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Rhodah Robinson, a native of Walker Grove, Mason County, Ill., and one child, Edwin, was born to them on September 21, 1897. Mrs. Anderson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and her husband of the Lutheran. Fraternally Mr. Anderson is a K. P., a Mason and a M. W. A. He is popular, proprietor of a growing business, the owner of a comfortable home, and enjoys the reputation of a good husband, father and citizen--certainly a position in life of which anyone (especially a young man of foreign birth who has been a resident of America but sixteen years) might feel justly proud. In politics Mr. Anderson is a Republican, but, before everything else, an American.