An Opportunity to be Better - Chapter 5 Page 6

Lars Anderson was born on Fvedt Farm near Bergen, Norway in 1835. He came to the United States in 1856. He married Helen Nelson, also of Norway, she arriving in the United States with her parents in 1849. They lived in Kendall County, Illinois, where he learned the nursery and merchandise business.

Their first child, Jennie (Jean), was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1869. In 1870, they moved to Clay County, Kansas. Lingah, Ellen (Ella), Severt, and Carrie were born in Kansas.

Settler Lars Anderson

Listen, little town in Europe;
Listen, people who remember;
Andersons have fought for milk, too.
Now they're doctors, teachers, farmers;
Mixed with Davises and Thorpes;
Mixed with Higgins, Ness, and Astons;
Mixed with those beyond our rim.
Still the [Anderson] children get a story
Of a woman's brave firm glory,
Hunting for a wayward cow;
Baby Jennie needed breakfast.
Then no store had icy bottles,
Bossy took the only milk
With her when she ran away.
In a vast and unmarked prairie,
All one day on foot alone,
Up ravines and over hilltops,
In the creek beds miles from home,
Helen hunted for the lost cow.
Found her with a herd of wild ones,
Long horned wild ones, dumb and vicious.
Knowing that they might stampede,
Knowing that one toss would kill her,
Murmured, "Bossy, you come home."
Tiptoed to the wild herd circling;
Bravely showed one ear of corn.
"You bad Bossy, you need milking,
Follow me and get your corn."
Miles across the wild rough prairie,
Helen led the wild rough cattle,
Following Bossy to her corn.
In the dark night all alone,
Through deep grass, stones, snakes, and wolf holes,
Helen led the angry herd home.
One misstep, and Bernard now
Could not rise and take his bow.

Comment

Carson offers a second story, this one about the Anderson family, noting they have married with other families and so the tale is also about them.

Son Severt's wife was Agnes Davis, daughter Jennie married Ove Thorpe, Ella married William Higgins, Lingah married Jens Anderson Ness, and Carrie married Walter Douglas Aston. The "rim" comment refers to none of the spouses being locals.

The story is about how the Andersons' cow wanders away from home and joins with a local herd of wild cattle. Helen, Lars' wife, needing milk for her baby Jennie, locates the cow and, with a lone ear of corn, entices it to return. The story reflects 1940s ideas when women were encouraged to feed babies cows' milk. In Helen's time, babies were fed breast milk. "Unmarked prairie" refers to the fact that there were almost no fences due to little wood being available locally and the recent invention of barbed wire. Carson might have also been saying it would be easy to get lost. Bossy is a common name farmers give to a cow.













Bernard Thorpe, Morganville's school superintendent, was Jennie's son.