Sophia Andersen of Mendon, mother of the Arbon Andersens

Sophia Larsen Andersen never homesteaded in Arbon Valley. Her sons did, and so did two of her daughters. From 1929 until her death in May 1939, the newspapers show the Andersen family of Arbon coming back to her in Mendon, in Cache Valley, Utah: for holidays, vacations and a reunion, for a funeral held at her home, and at last for her own.

The six brothers and their parents

Late in 1917 a writer who signed himself "the Pilgrim" was touring the farms of Power County for the American Falls Press. Arbon had been part of Oneida County until Power County was formed in 1913. On November 30 he wrote about one family:

Among the pioneers of Arbon valley the six Anderson brothers must ever be given a place in the front rank. They came here with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Anderson, in 1893, and have continuously been engaged in farming in the valley since that year.

The brothers were A. O., J. C., L. M., E. T., G. L. and H. W. Anderson, known on the family pages as Otto, John, Magnus, Ezra, George and Walt. Together, it said, they owned 1,520 acres and leased 160 more, and that year they had about 700 acres in wheat. It went on:

In all the years that they have farmed in the valley these pioneers have never experienced a total crop failure; it is true that several times the acre averages approached the dwindling point so close that hope nearly disappeared, but when the threshers came around and put in their reports at the end of their operations it was invariably found that enough wheat and other grain was at hand to tide the families over to a better year.

The parents, the Pilgrim added, now lived in Mendon and were enjoying "a well earned peaceful evening of life." He gave the mother's age as 64. The father's age is garbled in the text but is probably 84, and the Pilgrim noted that he had been "an officer in the Danish army." The family's own accounts differ from the article on one point: Andrew brought his sons to the valley, but he never lived there himself, and Sophia kept the home in Mendon.

Andrew died at Mendon in July 1922. The Deseret News printed his obituary on July 25, but the scan is jumbled with other columns. It shows that he was one of Mendon's first settlers and presided over its Scandinavian members. He served on the city council, managed the co-op store for many years, and was "made captain in the militia" because of his military training in Denmark. He had married Sophia Larsen on November 13; the year is unreadable in the scan, and family records give 1871. The legible part of the list of survivors places Otto, John, Ezra and Mrs. Annie Pett at Arbon, Idaho. Catherine Gibbons's life sketch of her father tells more of his life.

Guests of Mrs. Sophia Anderson

After 1922 the Mendon columns of the Logan Journal, Logan Herald Journal and Cache American recorded Sophia's visitors, and those from Arbon came often. Over Memorial Day in 1932 her guests included Otto and his daughters and Mr. and Mrs. John Anderson of Arbon, and she and her granddaughter Hilda served dinner. The next Decoration Day she gave a dinner for Otto and his daughters Clara and Ruth. George's family came from Malad, and Otto's daughter Norma from the Budge hospital in Logan. Her daughter Annie Pett, Mrs. Bruce Pett of Arbon, came for Thanksgiving in 1932, in January 1934, and in June and August 1935, sometimes with Bruce and the children. Ezra came with his wife and children in November 1935, and with his wife in May 1938. A Pett granddaughter spent her summer vacation with Sophia in 1930, and in November 1933 John's sons Mark and Willard were "guests of their grandmother." Her eldest daughter, Catherine Gibbons, a nurse at a Pocatello hospital, came home to Mendon on visits as well.

One gathering at her house was a funeral. Otto's wife, Retta Hansen Andersen, died at the family home in Arbon on Saturday, November 7, 1931. The Mendon column reported that Sophia had received word that day. It added that Mrs. Anderson, probably Retta, had fallen and broken her hip about three months earlier. On Tuesday, November 10, a funeral was held at Arbon in the morning. Her body was then taken to Mendon, and a second service was held that afternoon at Sophia's home. Retta was buried in the Mendon cemetery.

In August 1936 the Logan Herald Journal reported an Anderson reunion at Sophia's home, with dinner at two long tables. John's and Otto's families came from Arbon, and George's from Malad. Catherine, then matron of the hospital in Pocatello, was there too. The paper gave Sophia's age as 87. Her recorded birth date would have made her 83.

May 1939

Sophia Larsen Andersen died on Sunday, May 7, 1939, at 86. Her obituary on the front page of the Logan Herald Journal the next day called her a "pioneer resident of Mendon." It said she had lived there 77 years, having "crossed the plains with an ox team in 1862." She had been born in Denmark on February 7, 1853, a daughter of Magnus and Mary Hansen Larsen.

The list of her surviving children showed where the family now lived. Catherine Gibbons and Magnus were in Mendon, and George was at Malad. A. O., J. C. and E. T. Andersen and Mrs. Bruce Pett were "all of Arbon, Idaho." She also left a brother, Peter Larsen of Mendon, 28 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Walt, the youngest of the six brothers, had died in Oregon in 1923. The funeral was set for Tuesday in the Mendon ward chapel, with burial in the Mendon cemetery.

The Mendon column of May 19 named the mourners from out of town. Though jumbled in the scan, the list names Otto and his family, John and his wife, and Ezra and his wife, all of Arbon, along with George and his wife from Malad. Miles and Guy Larsen of Arbon also came with their wives to the funeral of "their aunt." They were the sons of her brother Peter M. Larsen, who had ranched at Summit. Hilda, who was teaching school at Murray, came home for her grandmother's funeral. Afterward about 90 people were served dinner at the home of Magnus and Catherine.

On this site: the Andersen family history follows each of Sophia's children, and the Mendon store fire of 1893 tells why her sons first looked north to Bannock Valley.

Sophia Andersen of Mendon, mother of the Arbon Andersens

The six brothers and their parents

Guests of Mrs. Sophia Anderson

May 1939

Sources

Connected histories

Andrew & Sophia Andersen

Anna Amelia "Annie" Andersen & Charles "Bruce" Pett