Andrew J. Anderson was born in Biri, Norway March 18, 1861. He was the oldest of seven children of Pernille and Johannes Anderson. When he was 19 he became restless and wanted to go to America. He left for the United States in 1880, worked a year, and sent for the next older brother, Ole. To keep the family together, the parents also decided to leave for the New World. In the spring of 1884, Pernille and Johannes Anderson and their five younger children arrived at Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin at the farm home of Johannes' cousin, Ole P. Feiring. Many other families from Biri had already become established there so the transition to a foreign land was not difficult. The spring they arrived, Ole Feiring was moving to North Dakota. Andrew went with him and Ole took over the Feiring farm in Pigeon Falls and later bought it. There the family made their home.
Andrew came to North Dakota in 1884 when this was still Dakota Territory. He worked at various jobs and on farms and gradually acquired land of his own. He could do most anything. He would take a team and wagon and pick up buffalo bones on the prairie. Many carloads of these bones were shipped out of Cooperstown to be made into fertilizer. His land was located south of Sutton. At one time he was the largest farm operator in that part of the county. He built a large farmhouse and it was the place where the newcomers from the Old Country would come. He gave them a home and work until they found other places to work or acquired land of their own. Before the Great Northern Railroad came to Sutton in 1912, he had a country store, a feed mill, a machinery repair shop, was a good vet and was postmaster at the end of the Star Route from Hannaford. Ole Hanson from Hannaford drove the team and brought the mail once or twice a week. He befriended and helped many of his neighbors and was generous in his support of the Mabel Lutheran Church.
For some years Andrew's parents, brothers, and sisters lived with his brother, Ole, in Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin. When Ole married his father planned to buy a nearby farm, which was for sale. However, his mother suffered greatly from asthma and Andrew thought a change of climate might be helpful, so the family moved to his farm in North Dakota. His mother remained there until her death in 1911. She is buried in the Mabel cemetery. His father paid a visit to Norway several years after his wife died and died there, as he was getting ready to return to the United States.
Andrew remained a bachelor until late in life when he married a widow, Christine Rugtiv. After Andrew's death she went to live with her daughter in Froid, Montana.
Andrew died on his Griggs County farm in 1927. He is buried in Mable Cemetery. He was truly a pioneer who helped to make this part of the country a great place in which to live.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 353