1873
The Andersons Migrate to America
In Norway, Anders Olesen and his family struggled to feed their eight children, even with the work of five sons it was hard to keep them all fed. Like many Norwegian families at that time, they looked to America to escape their plight, a new land of opportunity. Two of sons, Ole and Eli deciding to move to America first. They took a steam ship to Canada then traveled south to the Minnesota Territory where other Norwegians had already settled making easier for them since neither spoke any English. After the brothers got settled, they wrote back to their family encouraging them to come. In 1873 Tobias with his father and mother migrated to America and a couple years later the remaining family members followed with some moving to Iowa and Wisconsin. Upon arrival the family changed their last name to the Americanized surname of “Anderson”.