Esten and Ingeborg (Dragseth) Anderson
Soknedal, Norway

Excerpted from the History of Dunn County, Wisconsin (1925), p. 340-341

Esten and Ingeborg (Dragseth) Anderson were natives of Soknedalen, Norway. Esten was born Nov. 8, 1835 and Ingeborg born Nov. 2, 1837.  They were married in 1861 and emigrated to America in the spring of 1868, being landed at Quebec, Canada, whence they came directly to Dunn County, Wisconsin. The last stage of their journey was made up the Chippewa River and they disembarked from a small steamer at Rumsey's Landing, and thence went on to Menomonie, where Mr. Anderson found work with Knapp, Stout & Co.  After two years in the lumbering industry, in 1870 he bought part of a farm - a tract of 60 acres in Section 4, Township 26 north, or the political town of Spring Brook.  It was unimproved and for a while the Andersons resided with the Solberg family until Mr. Anderson could put up a small house, which he built with lumber in Eau Claire and rafted down the Chippewa River. Having learned the trade of carpenter in his native land, he was able to put up the house himself, and he also erected all his other buildings, besides doing carpenter work for other settlers as they came in.

After he had cleared most of his 60 acres he bought 40 more; later he put up a new set of buildings better suited to modern needs, and continued to improve and successfully cultivate his farm. In very early days the family bought their provisions at Rumsey's Landing, where there was a store. They got their mail at Rock Falls until a post office was established at old Meridean. In the latter place he helped to establish the Norwegian Lutheran Church, which was built by his brother, John Burke. He drove in much of the piling in the Chippewa River which held the lumber company's logs. After having established a good home in his adopted land, in 1905 he made a visit to his old home in Norway, meeting some of the friends of his youth who still survived. His death occurred on his farm, Jan. 28, 1918 and was an event much regretted in the community. His wife Ingeborg, who survived him, is still living on the old homestead with her son Andrew and is now 87 years old.

They were the parents of six children: Mary, now Mrs. Ole Froseth of Eau Claire, and the mother of five children, Alfred, Elmer, Minnie, Inga and Oscar; Andrew who was born in the city of Menomonie oct 31, 1869; Edward, now a farmer in Eau Claire County, who married Ingeborg Running, and has six children, Mabel, Elroy, Olga, Edwin, Inga and Helen; John, a resident of St. Paul who married Mary Bye and has three children, Ernest, Lucille and Eunice; Ole, of Terry, Mont., who married A. Mandia Wilson and has two children, James and Alice; and Peter, of Outlook, Mont, who married Olga Wagnild. Andrew Anderson was married on June 3, 1911 to Ida Holte, born March 2, 1885, daughter of John and Guru (Holte) Holte. They are the parents of two children: Esten J. and Gunda I.