Go West Young Man. . .from Sweden

The Andersons of Langbro Pursued the American Dream: “Go West, young man!”

Axel Ludwig Anderson and Anna Nilsdotter; photo courtesy Jeanne Rollberg

by Jeanne Rollberg

"A.L. ANDERSON, one of the prosperous husbandmen of Klickitat County, belongs to that great body of foreign-born population without whom the industrial and natural resources of the United States would be in their infancy. He is a native of the kingdom of Sweden, born November 10, 1845.” Thus a State of Washington historian described Axel Ludwig Anderson in a book published in 1893 in Chicago. Two of Axel’s Anderson’s brothers likewise left Sweden in the 1860s and 1870s after seven siblings and their parents, Pehr and Christina Ericsson Andersson, had died. Hilder Yngve Anderson, born July 17, 1848, and Oscar Reinhold Anderson, born April 1, 1850, struck out for America at a time when the United States was advertising opportunities in railroading and farming to Scandinavians seeking adventure and prosperity.

From the Washington historian’s point of view about the brothers, “The reports of the great advantages offered to all citizens of the United States proved more attractive than the ties of relationship, and broke the bonds of nativity.” The three may have been lured by newspaper editor Horace Greeley’s admonition to “Go West, young man. Go West and grow up with the country.” In the post-Civil War era as immigrants were streaming in, historians often said that three factors shaped the U.S. The first was the war itself. The second was the continuing pace of westward movement, and the third was increasing industrialization. The railroads brought those elements together, and the Anderson brothers participated in the evolution of “Amerika.”

Axel: Langbro, Sweden to New York City to Cheyenne, Wyoming to Goldendale, Washington

Axel Anderson worked briefly as a tailor in New York City, and then moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, marrying Anna Nilsdotter, born April 24, 1842 in Stora Koppom, Varmland. He became an employee of the Union Pacific Railroad Company and then moved to Goldendale, Washington, where he took up farming, his “farm consisting of 700 acres of choice land.” He became a member of the Republican Party and a director in the local school district. He and his wife, Anna, were naturalized in 1874. They had ten children in the U.S., five of whom died.

Axel Anderson lived the longest of the three Swedish brothers, dying in 1929 in Fern Prairie, Washington after his wife had predeceased him when the two lived in Oregon.

Hilder: Langbro, Sweden to Houston, Texas to Colorado to Washington Territory

Anderson’s younger brother, Hilder, emigrated to America and married his childhood sweetheart from Orebro, Sweden, Albertina Bjorkander, in Houston, TX in 1871. The two became parents of Lillian Greta Anderson in 1872. “H.Y.” Anderson worked for railroads in various capacities, and was listed in the 1880 Colorado census as a widower and saloon keeper. He ran the Scandia and Union Pacific saloons in famous Leadville, Colorado, a mining and railroading area that was booming. He later operated saloons in nearby Ruby City, following Greeley's plea to grow up with western America.

Lillian Greta Anderson;  photo courtesy Jeanne Rollberg

In 1881, Hilder Anderson married a Swedish woman, Maria Johnson, in Gunnison, Colorado. The two became parents of Harry Young Anderson in 1883, and a brother, Roy Maxwell Anderson, in 1884 in Washington Territory. The family moved to Washington, where Anderson worked as a contractor in Kittitas, Tacoma, and Spokane at the time when railroading was rapidly transforming the state and nation.

By 1902, Hilder Anderson was working in El Paso, Texas and Kansas City, Missouri for the Rock Island Railroad. While supervising work in Kansas City, he died at age 54, after a lengthy railroad career that had allowed him to take part in the taming of the west.

Oscar: Langbro, Sweden to the US railroads to Klickitat, Washington

His younger brother, Oscar, also worked in salooning and contracting for Union Pacific and other railroads, and was naturalized in 1882.

Oscar “O.R.” Anderson, lived with his brother Axel’s family until he died April 27, 1917. The obituary called him “a prominent railroad contractor” who “quit his work some years ago on account of his health.” The writer for “The Klickitat County Agriculturalist ” added that “his death will be learned of with regret by all who knew this genial and kind-hearted old gentleman.”


Together, the Anderson brothers contributed about 140 hard work years to their adopted home in often inhospitable climates and circumstances, and their Swedish-American children and grandchildren continued the work of the country in the fields of engineering, mining and farming, among others.