Anders
Andersson Äström as a young man in Degerfors, Vasterbotten, Sweden.
His father had died from tuberculosis when he was a child.
His brothers Johan Andersson and Nils Andersson had already emigrated
to America and sent glowing reports of free farm land available under the
Homestead Act. (Unknown to him the land would be gone before he was to
arrive.)
A few years after marrying Sophia Johansdotter Anders and his family
sailed on SS Adriatic to the United States with his wife Sophia and daughter
Hilma Anderson Bratmoe and mother Elizabeth Johansdotter Burman going on
the railroad 7-4-1889 to Salem, SD to farm and raise a family.
Anders pictured at the right with his wife Sophia (shortly before her
death in childbirth) holding hand of daughter Mayme Anderson Howe with
son Arvid Anderson and daughter Hilma Anderson Bratmoe in rear. Photo:
Montrose, SD near their farm (shown below):
Enlarged detail of the left hand corner of above picture is shown below:
(photo of Anders and his unmarried children who depart their farm for the
last time as Anders determines he must go to visit his brothers' families
in Presho SD, Cuba and Sweden, Nils had died of tubercleosis, Johan
dies after abdominal surgery in Cuba.)
