MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
SOREN PETER ANDERSON AND WIFE
KRISTINA MARIE THIES
KRISTINA MARIE THIES
Spring Coulee and District pages 200 - 201
Soren Peter Anderson was born in Denmark in 1875.
He was the sixth child of Peter Jensen and Johanna
Marie Larsen. There were twelve children in all. Soren
was 17 years old when he arrived in the United States
and moved around a lot. He had no formal education
in English schools but had a sharp mathematical mind.
Taught by his father, Soren became a full fledged
carpenter by the age of 14. He became a naturalized
American citizen in 1898 and then came to Lethbridge.
He was employed by the Great Northern Railway and
helped build the famous High Level Bridge in Lethbridge.
He became a naturalized citizen in Canada in 1908.
Kristina Marie Thies Anderson was born April 20, 1887 in
Denmark. She was the oldest child of Christian W. Thiesen
and Stena Marie Neilson. There were three children in
the family, Kristina, Alma and Tinous. The family arrived
in the United States in 1898 and lived in North and South
Dakota. Stena died during childbirth leaving three
children, Kristina was 12 years old and took over. She
was a very dependable and sweet child, worked hard
doing her household chores. She was very supportive
of Alma and Tinous. Her father remarried and had a
daughter named Ingrid. He also had a stepdaughter
named Jenny Paulsen.
Kristina married Soren Peter Anderson in 1905 in
Bowbells, North Dakota. They moved to Lethbridge
in 1908.
Mother, Kristina, was an exceptional person and kept
the family organized. She did all the cooking, sewing
and washing and it was done her way. Regardless of
the weather, Thursday was wash day. The soft water
was hauled in buckets from the well and heated on
the stove. She washed the clothes using home made
soap on a scrub board. White clothes were always boiled
and all the clothes had to be hung outside to dry. When
a wind came up all of us children would be out picking
up clothes from all over the yard. Ironing was a real pain
because of all the starch used. Kristina was a wonderful
cook and could make a meal with very little effort or
expense.
When mother found the time, she loved to sew. She
made many patch work quilts. The mending and darning
for such a large family was a never ending job. She sat
by the kerosene lamp for hours in the evening sewing.
When we bought our first gas lamp she was thrilled
because the light was so much better.
Mother always had a a large garden and every year we
went berry picking by Steels Crossing. Of course, the
canning was endless, but we always enjoyed the
fruits of her labour. Mother could milk a cow better
than anyone. As children, we bottled the milk and
went to town to sell it at 10 cents a quart.
Mother loved to read the news and waited for the
Greyhound bus to pass because the drivers would
throw the newspaper out the window at different farm
houses. Her social life was centered around family
and the community. She was a member of the Women's
Institute for 40 years (first original member)and
belonged to the Ladies Aid. She participated in all
the church and school activities. They always attended
the Whist Drives at other homes.
Soren and Kristina Anderson - Their life together
When they moved to Lethbridge in 1908, they already
had two children. With all the love they had to share,
a large family was in order and they had eleven.
When they first arrived in Lethbridge, the Andersons
lived in a small house at the River Bottom. They
considered themselves very fortunate, as many
families were living in tents. It wasn't long before
Soren took out a homestead in Iron springs. The
homestead was hard work and not very profitable.
The family struggled to survive, but had more than
most families because Soren worked as a carpenter.
He spent three months of the year on the farm. He
was employed as a foreman by the A.R.& I. between
Lethbridge and Cardston. He also worked as a
carpenter for Smith Bros. and Wilson Matson & Sons
In 1914 Soren and Kristina moved to Spring Coulee
with their five children. They rented land from Clara
C Thompson and proceeded to raise a healthy,
happy family.
Dad never liked farm work and taught the boys to work
in the fields when they were very young. Dad's niche
was carpentry and he built many homes and barns for
family and friends. He also taught many men the
carpentry trade. In 1924 he built a home for Herman
Johnson Sr. The fourth generation still lives in the home.
He made all the furniture in our home. It wasn't very
fancy but it was sturdy. He was also a good blacksmith
and mended many a harness and repaired shoes for
family and neighbours.
Soren was an honest, generous man and loved inviting
people to come for dinner. His door was always open
for the man who had no where to go. He loved music
and played the mouth organ. He wanted all his girls to
learn to dance and taught them all the old time dances.
Soren loved his beer, much to the dislike of our mother,
and reportedly could drink a quart of beer faster than
anyone. He chewed snoose, which didn't appeal to any
of the family because his favorite spitting place was the
coal bucket. Anyone of us could be called upon to get
the next piece of coal for the fire. He loved listening
to the radio.
Farm life was tough in those days and though the
Anderson's were not wealthy, they were rich in happiness,
love and health. Our childhoods were filled with hard
work and good times. The first farm was Section 34
Township 4 Range 23. The farm most remembered was
one and one half miles east of Spring Coulee (Section
3 Township 5 Range 23 ). Dad always got up first and
started the fires. All the children rushed to get dressed
by the stove. Often in the winter we would wake up to
frost on our quilts and frozen buckets of water in the
kitchen. Dad would try to insulate the house in the fall
by banking manure and straw around the house. The
smell was terrible until it froze. In the spring we would
haul it away. The worst part of winter was going outside
to the privy. In cold weather you made fast work of your
job.
Other special occasions were July Ist, when all the girls
would get new dresses and shoes. There would be races
for the children, a ball game and a dance in the evening.
Our father insisted on dancing with all of us girls at the
dance, which we found very embarrassing. The school
fairs were also a big event. Our family always entered
many items into the competition and usually came away
with many ribbons. Pa always spent many hours making
baskets for his girls for the basket social. We usually
always got first prize. Christmas was always an exciting
time in our house. The tree was decorated with popcorn
strings and homemade decorations. Candles were hooked
on the tree with great care because of the fire hazard.
Each child received one gift which we thought was the
greatest. The gifts were opened Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day we always had a big dinner.
Summers were spent playing ball with the neighbors and
riding horse back. We never did have bikes. Winters
were long and cold, but we could go skating on the
pond. Our skates were blades strapped to our shoes or
old discarded skates. Sometimes we would hitch the
horses to a bobsleigh and go to town and pick up our
friends. We would then race the horses down the
street and turn the horses so we'd all tumble off the
sleigh. We all went to a one room school with grades
I to 8. Our teachers were wonderful, although it must
have been hard for them to cope under the circumstances.
Harvesting was always a busy and exciting time. Dad
always hired extra help to do the stooking and three of
the children ran the Binder which seemed to break down
quite often. They had to go to town for parts to fix the
binders. We never had a threshing machine but we used
our Uncle's and the neighbor's. The girls had to help in
the cook house. Most of the time we were busy trying
to keep the flies down. Dad usually hired Danes as hired
help because he wanted his girls to marry Danish men.
Our barn burned down and our dad built another one. He
decided to have a dance in the loft first with an orchestra,
etc.. Mother and the neighbors served a lunch. A great
time was had by all and was the topic of conversation
for a very long time.
In 1937 our parents bought a new Hudson Terraplane and
took the twins and went on a trip south with it. We
visited every relative and friend from Spring Coulee to
San Diego, California which were many. Our dad was
not the best driver and consequently we had many
scares along the way. The good Lord looked over us
and we arrived home safely.
In 1938 our parents moved to Magrath and bought a
brick home one half a block from the Trading Company.
What an improvement over what we were used to
living in. We had running water and sewer, living room,
dining room, kitchen, five bedrooms, bathroom and
a garage. The home had to be completely redecorated.
After living there for a while, Pa built another house
across from the High School. They always looked
forward to the family coming home to visit them. Our
dad died in 1949 after having a stroke. Mother lived
here a short time with her grand daughter Betty Beimler.
She moved to Lethbridge and bought a home at
1249 4th Ave. South. Mother did a lot of travelling and
visiting and was always remodeling her home. She had
an enlarged heart and died November 1960 at the age
of 74. Our parents are both buried in Spring Coulee.
They left 8 children and 36 grandchildren.
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Mary Tollestrup