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.

The Glenwood Homestead and Flour Mills

In 1871 Brede and his family moved to Glenwood Township and began farming on a homestead in Section 21. He built a beautiful home that later passed to his daughter, Henrietta, and her husband Gustav Johnson.


Sander Homestead (Glenwood, Winneshiek, IA, date unknown). Image courtesy of Verla Williams.

Volume one of Edwin Bailey's history of Winneshiek County mentions that Brede SANDER had built a flour mill which later became a creamery.


Edwin C. Bailey, Past and Present of Winneshiek County, Vol. 1 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1913), p. 255.

There have been two flour mills erected in Glenwood township. One was built in 1868, known as the stone mill on the Trout river, and had adequate water power for a number of years. Another was built in 1872 by B. B. Sander on the same stream further down, but after a few years the water gave out, so the machinery was sold as scrap iron and the building was converted into a creamery. The stone mill mentioned above was run for several years by steam, but finally was closed, as it did not pay expenses.

Winneshiek County and Glenwood Township (1875)

The 1875 Winneshiek County map below is from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection and as one can see, even though it shows the sections of each township, it is not a plat map. Rumsey scanned this image from A. T. Andreas' illustrated historical atlas of the State of Iowa.


Winneshiek County, Iowa (1875). Image courtesy of David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

What is interesting is if one examines the detail of Glenwood township below, one can see B. B. Sander's name at the bottom of Section 22.


Glenwood Township, Winneshiek, Iowa (1875). Image courtesy of David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

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.