My Genealogy Hound

NELSE ANDERSON, the subject of this sketch, is one of the earliest settlers and most properous farmers of Hayes township, Kearney county. He was born in Sweden, October 6, 1833, where he resided the first thirty-six years of his life, attending school in his boyhood and working on the farm in after years. In 1869, he came to America, locating in Moline, Ill., where he found employment as a farm hand. He resided there until 1877, when he came further west and settled in Nebraska, taking a homestead in Hayes township, Kearney county, where he has since resided. When Mr. Anderson settled in Kearney county he was unmarried and for the first eight years he led the bachelor life of the frontier. His means were limited and he of necessity began in an upretentious way, building the primitive dug-out, which he fitted up with rude furniture manufactured by himself. He endured many hardships and privations, but he fought the battles of the pioneer alone and he came through the trying times of those years all the better off for what he endured. He now has one of the best farms in Kearney county in a good state of cultivation and furnished with a splendid class of buildings, his sod house having given away to a large frame and his small thatched roof barn to a most commodious one — in fact one of the best in the township — and all the result of his own industry and economical management.

In 1884, he married Ellen Akesson, by whom he has had two children — Hulda J. and Clara J. In the labor of making for himself a home, be has been ably assisted by his excellent wife, who has borne her full share in her economical management of the household.

Mr. Anderson never allowed any political aspirations to interfere with his usefulness as a citizen, but is a republican, and is a stanch supporter of the principles of his party. He is progressive and enterprising and takes an active interest in all the affairs of his township.