The building up of civilization and the development of the immense industrial enterprises of the great West ahs been accomplished by the bravest and most energetic sons of many widely differing nationalities. Among them are those given by the Northland countries of Europe who sent one of the best elements that could by any possibility enter into the structure of a state. And of the representative and successful men of Uinta County, Wyoming, we must now make record of one who left the shores of his native land of Sweden to create a new home in the new lands of the far West, where opportunities are ever open to such industry, energy and perseverance as have been here displayed by O. Fred Anderson, now the owner of a fine estate of 320 acres of rich bottom land on Ham’s Fork, seven miles west of the active little city of Granger. Mr. Anderson was born on October 1, 1869, at Oskarshamm in Sweden, a son of Andrew and Gustava (Wolf) Oleson, his father being an industrious and skillful ship-carpenter, while his mother was the daughter of a gallant old soldier. His father, who was born on March 14, 1833, was the son of Olaf F. Oleson. Of the nine children of Andrew Oleson six are now living, our subject being the only one residing in the United States. After attending the excellent Swedish schools until he was eighteen years old, the young man courageously took up his journey of thousands of miles to a country where everything was unknown but which was pictured in his imagination as a land of glorious possibilities to the diligent and deserving workers and this hope sustained him in his departure from home and the dear home ties buoying him up to meet the future with a bold and fearless heart. His first location in America was the great city of Chicago, where he continued in Kansas for a year, then returning eastward he was employed in the lumber woods of Michigan for four years, thereafter coming to Colorado and being identified with railroading for two years, in all of these vocations giving honest service and looking well to the interests of the employer. Still following railroading, he came to Wyoming in 1894 and was employed on the railroad at Green River for two more years. Frugal saving and economical as well as energetic and industrious by this time his savings gave him thought of making a home and an estate of his own, and, in 1896 he located on the land where he now resides and engaged in ranching and in cattle raising. His estate comprises 160 acres of excellent bottom land and here he is prosperously running fine herds of cattle, showing great discrimination and care in his operation and being considered one if the representative stockmen of this section of the state. In all matters of public interest and improvement Mr. Anderson takes a leading part, being a generous contributor to private as well as to public benefactions. Politically, Mr. Anderson gives stalwart support to the Republican party being interested in its various campaigns, while fraternally he is identified with the Improved Order of Red Men as a member of Ute Tribe, No. 6 at Green River. On May 14, 1896, Mr. Anderson was joined in matrimony at Green River, Wyoming with Mrs. Josephine E. Johnson the widow of Paul Johnson one of the best known of the old-timers of this section and who died on January 14, 1895. She was born in Norway on February 27, 1865; the daughter of Hans and Gustava A. Paulson, natives and residents of Christiana, Norway, where her father died at the age of fifty-four years and her mother is still living at sixty-four years. She was the second of the nine children in the family and is now the sole survivor. She emigrated from Europe in 1885, the same year coming to Wyoming where occurred her first marriage Mr. Johnson being a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, born on April 25, 1849, and he was a resident of Wyoming form 1870, extensively engaged in the stock business. There are two children of the first marriage, Edgar P., born in Granger, Wyoming on June 7, 1887 and Annie L. Johnson also born in Granger on September 10, 1889. These children possess many of the leading characteristics of their parents.
