Introduction

For some reason my mother, Verla Williams, never got around to putting together a booklet for the SANDER family as she had done for all of the other branches of the family. She had gathered together the information and put it in a loose-leaf binder which I recently received. Hopefully at this point she won't feel she has to print out booklets as all of the material that would have gone into the booklet will be posted online here.

This blog contains information on the ancestors and descendants of Brede Bredesen SANDER and his wife Karen (Huseby) SANDER. It includes maps, pedigree and descendant charts, family group sheets, censuses, and numerous photos.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional information or corrections.

Mark D. Williams, D.M.A.
1393 Kim Pl.
Minden, NV 89423
voxdoc@yahoo.com

UPDATE (14 Nov 2018): I am excited to announce the publication of a brief (about 34 pages) biography and family history of Brede Bredesen Sander on Amazon.com. It is illustrated with contemporary photos and contains over 100 footnotes linked to relevant primary and secondary sources. Available in both Kindle ($2.99) or trade paperback ($5.99) editions.

Pedigree Charts for Brede Bredesen (1822-1905) and Karen (Huseby) SANDER (1821-1868)

Pedigree Chart. Brede Bredesen SANDER (1822-1905). Image courtesy of Williams Family Pages.


Pedigree Chart. Karen (Huseby) SANDER (1821-1868). Image courtesy of Williams Family Pages.

Berger Eriksen SANDER (c. 1702-1770)

So far the farm histories for the SANDER family have only provided us with enough information to trace Brede Bredesen SANDER's paternal line back another three generations to Berger Eriksen SANDER. According to Ancestry.com, on 3 Apr 1729 Berger married a Marthe Andersdatter Mjølnerud. With a little searching the documentation was found in the Grue parish records (SAH, Grue prestekontor, Ministerialbok nr. 1, 1712-1748, s. 214-215) as well as their betrothal on 12 Feb. What was interesting was that Berger's farm name was listed as Hoǔchaasen, or as they spell it now, Hokåsen. In 1739 they had a son who they named Erik.

Recently I discovered in the Grue parish records what I believe is a record of Berger's death. A Google search had taken me to Arne Sandbakken's page in Geni.com which indicated Berger was born c. 1702 and died in 1770. Though the handwriting of the minister in the Grue parish records is extremely difficult to make out, it appears that an entry for 26 Jun 1770 is for the burial of Berger Erichs. Sander (outlined in red below).


SAH, Grue prestekontor, Ministerialbok nr. 2, 1749-1774, s. 445-446.

Arne Sandbakken's entry also provided some additional details for Berger's wife, Marthe. The Grue parish records appear to show that her burial was on 23 Feb 1743. It is the last entry in the first column.


SAH, Grue prestekontor, Ministerialbok nr. 1, 1712-1748, s. 422-423.

Brede Bredesen SANDER (1822-1905)

This photograph of Brede SANDER is the only one in the family's possession. The date it was taken is unknown, but it obviously would have to have been prior to his death in 1905.


Portrait. Brede Bredesen SANDER (Bef. 1905). Image courtesy of Verla Williams.

The parish records for Brandval i Grue, Hedmark fylke record the birth and baptism of Brede Bredesen SANDER on 12 Jan and 3 Feb 1822 respectively.


Detail of Hedmark fylke, Brandval i Grue, Klokkerbok nr. 1 (1814-1841), Fødte og døpte 1822, side 37. Image courtesy of Digitalarkivet.

Recently I noticed there is another parish record for Brede's birth and baptism in the Grue Ministerialbok (1814-1830) where on page 73b he is listed as entry 13. Since the information is the same, I will simply refer the reader to the link if they are interested in a comparison.

Karen Svenningsdtr (Huseby) SANDER (1821-1868)

Karen Svenningsdtr Huseby was born 11 Jan 1821 and was baptized 18 Feb 1821 in the Brandval church. As seen in the pedigree chart above, she was the daughter of Svenning Svenningsen Helgebøl and Eli Eriksdatter SANDER, which also makes Brede Bredesen SANDER her first cousin.


Detail of Hedmark fylke, Brandval i Grue, Klokkerbok nr. 1 (1814-1841), Fødte og døpte 1821, side 32. Image courtesy of Digitalarkivet.

Just as Brede had an additional record, there is also an additional one for Karen in the Grue Ministerialbok (1814-1830) p. 63, no. 15.

Brede Bredesen SANDER: Family Group Sheet

At the age of 26, Brede, and Karen, who was 27, got married on 6 Apr 1848 as the parish records attest.


Detail of Hedmark fylke, Grue, Ministerialbok nr. 8 (1847-1858), Ekteviede 1848, side 244. Image courtesy of Digitalarkivet.

However, the records also show that Brede and a woman named Anne Gudmundsdtr had a daughter named Gunne, (aka Jane; see below) who was born on 10 Nov 1847. For Brede's children, please refer to the family group sheet below.


Family group sheet. Brede Bredesen SANDER. Image courtesy of Williams Family Pages.

Coming to America

Brede and Karen SANDER, along with their children, Brede Jr. and Anton, and Brede's daughter, Gunne (Jane) left Norway for America in 1853. The Grue parish records indicate that they relocated on 8 Apr.


Detail of Hedmark fylke, Grue, Ministerialbok nr. 8 (1847-1858), Inn- og utflyttede 1853-1857, side 371. Image courtesy of Digitalarkivet.

1860 US Federal Census: Brede Bredesen Family

The 1860 Census shows the Brede SANDER family living in Madison Township in Winneshiek County, Iowa. Apparently they were using the patronymic name for a surname and the census taker was not a particularly great speller.


Detail of 1860 US Federal Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

400 / 378 / Brad Braderson [Brede Bredesen] / 39 / M / Farmer / Norway
Karine do [ditto] / 40 / F / Norway
Jane do / 13 / F / Norway
Brad do / 11 / M / Norway
Anton do / 9 / / M / Norway
Ann S. do / 7 / F / Iowa
Ellen M. do / 3 / F / Iowa
Gertrude E. Oleson / 15 / F / School Teacher / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Madison, Winneshiek, Iowa; Roll: M653_345; Page: 845; Image: 293; Family History Library Film: 803345.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. 
Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

1870 US Federal Census: Brede Bredesen Family

Of interest in the 1870 Census is that the SANDER family is listed with the Ole Hermanson family.

Jane SANDER was married by 1870. Anton was actually 19 and obviously not female. I have not yet found a census record for Anna in 1870. However, since Anton was attending Luther and also appears in a separate 1870 entry, I suspect the census taker got the name wrong and "Anton" should have read "Anna," (who would have been 16 and female). Two new additions to the family included my great grandmother Henrietta and her younger brother Bernt. Apparently Brede was also employing two helpers, Erik Erickson and Karen Olson.


1870 US Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.


Detail of 1870 US Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Bredison, Brede / 41 / M / W / farmer / Norway
_____, Brede jr. / 21 / M / W / farm labor / Norway
_____, Anton / 16 / F [sic] / W / at home / Norway
_____, Elenor / 13 / F / W / at home / Iowa
_____, Henrietta / 9 / F / W / Iowa
_____, Bernt / 6 / M / W / Iowa
Erickson, Erik / 16 / M / W / farm labor / Norway
Olson, Karen / 40 / F / W / domestic servant / Norway

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Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Madison, Winneshiek, Iowa; Roll: M593_426; Page: 236A; Image: 475; Family History Library Film: 545924.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

1880 US Federal Census: Brede B. SANDER Family

1880 US Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.


Detail of 1880 US Census. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com.

100 / 101 / Sander, Brede B. / W / M / 58 / Farmer & Miller / Norway
_____, Brede B. jr. / W / M / 32 / Son / At home / Norway
_____, Anne / W / F / 24 / Daughter / Keeping House / Iowa
_____, Ellene / W / F / 22 / Daughter / At home / Iowa
Sander, Henrietta / W / F / 19 / Daughter / At home / Iowa
_____, Berndt / W / M / 16 / Son / At home / Iowa

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Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Glenwood, Winneshiek, Iowa; Roll: 370; Family History Film: 1254370; Page: 136A; Enumeration District: 346; Image: 0461.
Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Miner County, South Dakota Commissioner (1884)

Some time in the early 1880s, Brede SANDER went to Miner county, South Dakota. In 1884 he was elected Commissioner and is listed as such in Martin Ulvestad's Nordmændene i Amerika.


Brede B. SANDER.  Martin Ulvestad, Nordmændene i Amerika (Minneapolis, MN: 1907, 1913), pp. 412, 902. Images courtesy of Norway Heritage.

Obituary: Brede Bredesen SANDER (1822-1905)

Brede SANDER died on 9 Oct 1905 in Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA. His obituary appeared in the Norwegian language newspaper, The Decorah Posten, a copy of which is below.

Obituary. Brede Bredesen SANDER. Decorah Posten (13 Oct 1905), p.  8, col. 1.

The following translation of the text of the obituary was provided by Verla Williams:

A Pioneer Passes Away

Old Brede Sander died Monday night at the home of his son-in-law, Gustav Johnson in Glenwood Township after four, five weeks illness. The cause of death was old age infirmity. The deceased was born in Solør near Kongsvinger, the 12th of January, 1822, and he lived to be almost 84 years old. He was married in 1848 to Karen Huseby and came to America in 1851. He worked the first year on the railroad in Illinois and moved in 1852 from Illinois to Winneshiek County. He lived first on what now is Peter Bakke's farm in Decorah township moving to Madison township and settled in 1871 on the farm in Glenwood township where he died. Brede Sander was among those who called Dr. Koren as pastor and he heard Pastor Koren's first sermon in Iowa. He was the first who signed up by subscription to the Building Fund of Luther College, and he gave the largest sum - $300. He operated for a while a flour mill and then often brought gifts of flour to the household at Luther College. Sander had six children -- three boys and three girls. One of his sons, Dr Anton Sander was for a time a teacher at Luther College but he died young while a teacher in New York. The other five children live, the oldest son, Brede in Miner Co., So. Dak. where also old Sander resided for awhile. Mrs. Sander died in 1868. Blessed be the pioneer's memory.

Gravestone: Brede Bredesen SANDER

Brede SANDER was buried in the Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery in rural Glenwood township. An undated early photograph shows the gravestone alone with very few graves nearby and a lot of tall grass. The inscription is the same as the one on his wife Karen's gravestone. It reads, "Fred med dit støv, velsignet være dit minde." This means in English, "Peace to your dust [i.e., earthly remains], blessed be your memory."


Gravestone. Brede B. SANDER (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA: Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, 1905). Image courtesy of Verla Williams (date unknown).

The next two photographs are also undated unfortunately. The first shows the considerable number of graves that have been added to the cemetery since the photograph above and also has some rather large flower bushes in front of the grave. The second has been cropped to highlight the gravestone itself.


Gravestone. Brede B. SANDER (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA: Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, 1905). Images courtesy of Verla Williams (date unknown).

Below are photographs of the gravestone from the years 1993-2011:


Gravestone. Brede B. SANDER (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA: Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, 1905). Image courtesy of Vincent D. Williams (Sep 1993).


Gravestone. Brede B. SANDER (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA: Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, 1905). Image courtesy of Verla Williams (25 May 2008).


Gravestone. Brede B. SANDER (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA: Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, 1905). Image courtesy of Verla Williams (29 May 2011).

The gravestone immediately to the left of Brede's stone belongs to his granddaughter, Mabel A. Johnson, who died at the tender age of 10 in 1899. It is curious that one is not able to see this stone in the top picture above. To the left of Mabel's stone is that of Vivian R. (Ask) Johnson, who was the wife of Brede's grandson, Arthur Johnson. Vivian passed away in 1935. Behind and to the right of Brede's stone is the Helmer Williams family gravestone. Helmer was a brother of Sigvart Williams and died in 1930.

Roadside Ramblings

This 1944 article provides a detailed history about Henrietta SANDER's youth and her life as part of a Winneshiek county pioneer family.


L. Dale Ahern, ed., "Roadside Ramblings," Decorah Public Opinion 50:13 (Decorah, IA: 29 Mar 1944). Image courtesy of Verla Williams.

ROADSIDE RAMBLINGS
WITH L. DALE AHERN, EDITOR

Wagons creeping westward over untamed wilderness. The sun rising on little streams of immigrant caravans trickling from east to west down the virgin valleys and across the bleak hills of young America. And the same sun setting on the same little streams of humanity, still ebbing almost imperceptibly into the land of evening dusk.

You see these caravans, see the hundreds of home-hungry people, and feel the blood warming expectancy in their hearts, the fervent hopes in their songs and prayers, as you hear Mrs. Gustav Johnson tell of her youth as a child of early Winneshiek county settlers.

Mrs. Johnson, the former Henrietta Sander, was born in Madison township February 27, 1861, daughter of Brede and Karen Sander, who came to this country as emigrants from Solor, Norway, in 1853. Their story is the story of numerous other families who left Norway in the 50’s to seek greater opportunities in America.

The Sanders came by sailboat, were on the ocean seven weeks. They came with a small quantity of earthly possessions, three children, and an indomitable faith in the future.

Among Mrs. Johnson’s earliest memories are those of the Norwegian immigrants who found their way to her father’s pioneer home in Madison township. Every summer during the first years the immigrants straggled in, seeking rest and counsel on the knotty problems of establishing a home in the wild, new land.

The newcomers from the old country always found refuge at the Sander farm. In fact, Brede Sander erected a small log cabin near his house to serve as a temporary home for the settlers drifting in. Some of these visitors found land, built homes, and moved into them within a short time after arriving. Others lingered in the Sander cabin all summer.

The immigrants usually were met at Lansing or McGregor by relatives or acquaintances who had come here and settled ahead of them. The trip from the river was made by wagon. Mrs. Johnson recalls that Sunday was a big day in the lives of the pioneers. On the Sabbath day the settlers all gathered at one of their homes for Scripture readings and Norwegian hymn-singing.

These devotional meetings not only served to satisfy religious cravings they also helped to assuage the lonely hearts so strained with homesickness for Norway. In the cozy confines of a settler's cabin, compassionate souls enjoyed the spiritual exaltation known only to companions in loneliness.

Mrs. Johnson remembers that children were subjected to stern discipline during these religious devotions. While one of the elders read in sonorous tones from the somber verses of the Scripture, all young people were required to sit in absolute silence, keeping their hands folded in appropriate respect for the solemnity of the hour.

Family devotion, too, was a vital influence in the lives of many of those first settlers. Brede Sander and his wife always gathered their children about them each evening before going to bed. On such occasions Brede would read from the Bible, and he and his wife would sing Norwegian hymns. As soon as the children became old enough to carry a tune and master the words of these hymns, they joined their parents in the vesper services around the family altar.

Brede Sander did not take such matters lightly, so he expected rapt attention from his children during family worship. On the other hand, the children, being subject to the bodily weariness which all normal and healthy children feel after a big day of frolicking or labor, would sometimes doze away during the services. This brought a prompt reprisal from Brede Sander.

Rev. Vilhelm Koren came to Winneshiek county from Norway the same year the Sanders came. Not long after he arrived here, the settlers began gathering in first one cabin and then another to be led in worship by the new pastor. Koren went about Winneshiek county and Southern Minnesota organizing congregations of home worshippers. By his spiritual guidance and kindly leadership, Koren became a symbol of comfort and faith among his people.

When Henrietta Sander, the present Mrs. Johnson, was 8, her mother died. Brede never remarried. He and his children, with the help of the dead wife’s aged mother, shifted as best they could. When Henrietta was 9 or 10, her father moved to a farm in Glenwood township.

After moving to this new home, Henrietta started walking to the Washington Prairie church, a little church in which Koren had begun preaching, to read her Bible lessons for him and thus to prepare herself for confirmation.

A number of children from her section of the county were likewise going to Koren for their confirmation lessons. They walked great distances to receive this instruction. Henrietta walked about five or six miles. Some of her aquaintances walked much farther. Since the latter passed her house on their way, Henrietta waited for them, and then from the Sander house, they trudged away together.

Another memory often cropping up in Mrs. Johnson’s thoughts is that of her father and his prairie chicken trap. Brede Sander delighted in the sweet wild flavor of plump-breasted prairie chickens which he took time to catch for his family after the rush of farm work had been succeeded by the quiet, peaceful days of autumn.

Brede would roll a barrell out into the meadow where the wild chickens congregated to feed and roost. In one end of the barrel, he constructed a trap door. This door was made to spring downward when a bird alighted on it, thus dropping the bird into the barrel, whereupon the trap door sprang again into place.

By sprinkling shelled grain on the top of the barrel, Brede lured many a prairie chicken to alight upon the trap. In this manner he caught an abundance of wild meat in the early years of his life in Winneshiek county.

A certain Christian Pinkart, young Norwegian teacher, came to Winneshiek county, leaving his wife and children in Norway until he could have time to ascertain the possibilities for him in America. He went among the settlers, instructing the children in matters of religion, writing, bookkeeping, and other subjects. The itinerant teacher stayed at the Sander home, teaching the Sander children in return for his board and room.

Somehow, Pinkart lost heart in his work. Whether it was because of the meagerness of his earnings, his weariness with a struggling, new and seemingly pagan country, or his loneliness for his loved ones has never become a matter of record. It is known, however, that Pinkart at last gave up and returned to Norway.

Brede Sander built and operated a flour mill on his Glenwood farm. Later he converted it into a feed mill. Then the time came when this same mill building was used as a creamery, the Glenwood creamery.

When the Sander girls became old enough to work out, they took turns doing housework in Decorah during winter months. It was through this circumstance that Henrietta met the man who later became her husband.

She was working at the Rasmussen home in the house that is now the VFW headquarters. It so happened that a young fellow called Gust Johnson, a printer at the Lutheran Publishing house was rooming and boarding at the Rasmussen home. He had come to Decorah from the Skandinaven in Chicago.

About two years later Henrietta Sander became Mrs. Gustav Johnson. The couple lived in Decorah on Mechanic street five or six years. At the end of that time, Brede Sander broke up housekeeping. Gust and Henrietta bought the home farm in Glenwood township and moved to it, Mr. Johnson never again returning to the printing trade except occasionally to help at the publishing house.

The Johnsons lived on this farm until about 22 years ago. Gustav died in 1934. Mrs. Johnson at the age of 83 is making her home with a daughter, Mrs. Walter Williams of 210 East Broadway. Mrs. Johnson has two other daughters and two sons: Mrs. Carl Hexom, of near Waukon; and Mrs. C. H. Rosenthal, William N. Johnson, and Norman [sic, should read Arthur] Johnson, all of Decorah.

UPDATE (17 Dec 2018): Today I found the Community History Archive site for Decorah which had a scan of the original paper in which this article was found.