Reverend A.M. Andersen emigrated from Denmark in 1873. He was the founder of Trinity Seminary and Dana College in Blair, Nebraska. He and his wife, Laurine, had seven surviving children—Agnes Andersen Larsen, Emma Andersen Seiler, Silas, Andrew, Anton, Ruthven and Allen.
After arriving in the U.S., Andersen entered Augsburg College and Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spent one and a half years in the mission field of Nebraska before a congregation in Racine, Wisconsin, called him to serve as pastor. He later served congregations in Washington and Burt Counties in Nebraska before he started holding classes for four students in his simple frame house in Blair. From this humble beginning grew Trinity Seminary and Dana College. Andersen served as editor of the Lutheran publication Danskeren and as a member of the Dana College board of regents before leaving Blair to serve a congregation in Beresford, South Dakota. He later moved to California and died in Fresno in 1941. Andersen received many honors, including being recognized by the King of Denmark with the Golden Cross of the Knights of the Royal Order of the Dannebrog. In 1938 Trinity Seminary, the school he had founded 54 years earlier, presented him with an honorary doctorate.
Samples from the collection
