Charles G. Anderson. Prosperity in capital letters and all its meanings belongs to Charles G. Anderson of Falun, Saline County. Every one in that section knows Mr. Anderson and he knows everybody. He had spent nearly fifty years there. He is a very successful farmer and stockman and is the type of man who does not keep all his success to himself. His father came to Saline County in pioneer times, accumulated a splendid estate, but though indebted to his father’s enterprise Charles G. Anderson had really earned all that he had and probably would have been equally prosperous if he had started without a cent from anybody. He had that quality of enterprise in him.
Mr. Anderson was born at Smolan, Sweden, July 14, 1860, and came to America with his parents when he was a small boy of about eight years. He is a son of L. G. and Caroline G. (Olson) Anderson, both of whom deserve mention as early pioneers of Saline County. His father was born in Sweden January 6, 1807, and died at Falun, Kansas, January 15, 1911. He came to America in 1869, and acquired a tract of Government land in Falun Township. That land, with much more which came gradually into his ownership, he occupied and made fruitful until old age came upon him. He was one of the most active members of the Swedish Lutheran Church and one of the organizers of the old Salemsburg Church. He and his wife had seven children, and all of them are living except one.
The third in age, Charles G. Anderson, had very few recollections of his early life in Sweden, but remembers Saline County when the settlements were little more than outposts on the frontier. His father gave each of his sons a farm and Charles G. Anderson’s individual place is located three miles north of Falun. He had improved the land and had made more than an ordinary success as a farmer and stock raiser.
On October 4, 1884, he married Miss Caroline Nelson, who was born in Sweden August 21, 1861, and came to America in 1880 with her parents, Nelse P. and Louise Nelson. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have three daughters: Angles Almeta, born April 8, 1888, was married October 23, 1912, to Luther Carlson. They have one child, Lawrence, born August 2, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Carlson are members of the farming community of Saline County. Bettie Olive, the second daughter, was born January 1, 1893, and is a graduate of the Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina. She is now a proficient stenographer. Cordelia Irene, the youngest, was born April 12, 1898, is a graduate of the public schools and is still at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson also have a foster child, August Henry Shultz, who was born at Yates Center, Kansas, January 21, 1900. The Anderson family are all active and regular members of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Salemsburg.