Skip Navigation

Tolef Anderson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Tolef Anderson

Birth Name

Tollef Andersen Hjølmen

Lived

14 Sep 1842 – 8 Jan 1924

Birth Place

Hjølmen, Hemsedal parish, Gol, Buskerud fylke

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Worth County, IA

Company at Enlistment

K

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

11 Feb 1862

Death Location

Glenville, Freeborn County, MN

Burial Location

Glenville First Lutheran Cemetery, Freeborn County, MN

Mother

Randi Tollefsdatter Hjølmen

Mother Lived

7 Jan 1819-26 May 1898

Father

Anders Hansen Gulen

Immigration

1861

Spouse

Cecilia Kristensen/Sedsel Christiansdatter Aanrud

Spouse Lived

14 Apr 1849-17 Jul 1938

Married On

12 Dec 1868

Marriage Location

Silver Lake, Worth County, IA

Tollef Anderson was born on September 14, 1842, in Hemsedal parish, Gol, Buskerud. He left the parish with his mother April 8, 1861, and enlisted later that year.  He joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company K. The company called itself “Clausen’s Guards” in honor of the 15th’s first Chaplain, Claus L. Clausen. Most of the company was recruited from Scandinavian communities in Minnesota and Iowa, with the rest from Wisconsin.

The army listed Anderson as living in Worth County, IA, age 19, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on December 11, 1861, in Worth County, and mustered at Madison, WI, on February 11, 1862, as a Private (Menig). He was sick in Union City on June 20, 1862, in Iuka, MS, on June 21, 1862, and in Florence on August 28, 1862. Anderson was assigned to Pioneer Corps in February 1863. He mustered out with K Company on February 10, 1865, at Chattanooga, TN.

After the war, he married Sedsel (Cecelia) Aanrud Christenson in Worth County, IA. They had at least ten children, including Christian (1869-1941), Marie/Mary (1871-1910), Randena/Rena (1873-1967), Ingvald (1876-1968), Sina (1878-1970), Theodore (1881-1974), Sophia (1883-1964), Julia (1885-1960), Laura (1888-1978), and Alfred W. (1890-1985). They lived in Freeman, Freeborn County, MN, where he was a farmer. Tollef died on January 8, 1924, and was buried in Glenville First Lutheran Cemetery, Glenville, Freeborn County, MN.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-12; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol. 20, p. 142; Det Femtende Regiment Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, 1894, B. Anundsen, Decorah, IA, p. 619; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Publ. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p. 316; Nordmændene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p. 269; Freeborn County, Minnesota, Historical Society; 1880 Census, Roll: 620, Family History Film: 1254620, Page: 118C, Enumeration District: 098, Image: 0238; “Norwegian Immigrants 1850 and later”, database, NAGCNL, #44931, #44936; digitalarkivet.no; ancestry.com; findagrave.com.