Andersen, H. Carl (Herman Carl), 1897-1978

H[erman] Carl Andersen was born on January 27, 1897, the son of Charles Carl (1858-1940?) and Lorena Nielson (1868-1946). Charles C. Andersen emigrated from Denmark in the late 1870s and worked in the coal mines of Illinois, eventually becoming an assistant superintendent. He married Karen Lorena Nielson in 1889 and moved to New Castle, Washington, where H. Carl was born. In 1901 the family moved to a farm near Tyler, Minnesota. However, the elder Andersen returned to mining and became superintendent of a large coal mine owned by Northern Pacific Railway at Red Lodge, Montana, where H. Carl graduated from high school in 1913.

In 1916 H. Carl received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy where he spent a year and four months. While aboard the battleship "Wyoming" in 1917, a gun blast partially impaired his hearing and he was unable to qualify for further service. He spent the next seven years on the farm near Tyler. From 1926 to 1928 he was employed in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama, where he married Martha Elder (1906- ) in May 1927.

They returned to the Tyler farm and in 1935 Andersen was elected from the twelfth district to the Minnesota House of Representatives. In 1938 he was elected a Republican representative to Congress from the seventh district. He represented that district continuously until 1962, when the seventh district became part of the first district and he lost the subsequent election. During his congressional service, Andersen became the ranking member of the agriculture subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and also served on the Public Works and Atomic Energy committees.

Andersen had two sons: Charles Carl and Alfred Eugene. He died on July 28, 1978.

Biographical information was obtained from the papers and from the Minneapolis Tribune, July 28, 1978.

From the guide to the H. Carl Andersen papers., 1889-1974., (Minnesota Historical Society)