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Oscar Anderson
The History of Renville County, Volume 2
Compiled by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Chapter XXXVIII
p. 1196-1197

Oscar Anderson, a well-to-do farmer of Hawk Creek township, was born in Sweden, April 24, 1851, son of Andres and Bertha (Olson) Johnson, who brought him to America in 1868 and to Hawk Creek township in 1869. For a year Oscar Anderson worked with his father. Then he went to St. Peter and worked as a stone mason for some seven years. In 1878 he rented the home farm, and ten years later purchased it. In the years that have passed he has made extensive improvements. In 1910 he erected a unique home which is one of the sights of the county. The house is made of cement bricks manufactured on the place. The cement brick of which the body of the house is made are tinged with red, giving the appearance of ordinary brick. The cornices and trimmings are also made of cement bricks, gray in color, and finished to a high degree of smoothness and hardness. The bricks about the windows and doors neatly and artistically beveled. The interior of the house is finished in oak, and the appointments are modern in every particular. The picturesque house with its many gables and large front porch resembles a small castle such as one sees in the Old Country. The place is indeed a monument to the owner, not only from the fact of its beauty and oddness, but also from the fact that he planned its construction himself, and carried out his own plans, all the material except the lumber and the cement originating on the place. Among the other comforts and conveniences may be mentioned the gas lights. Mr. Anderson is a prominent man in the community, has served on the town board as chairman and on the school board as clerk and director, and has done public service in many other ways. He engages in general farming and has been very successful. Mr. Anderson had three children: Carl O., born May 8, 1884; Emma, born Nov. 13, 1891, now the wife of Albert Olson, of section 12, Hawk Creek township; and Florence, born Aug. 23, 1904.


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