Effie Florence Anderson 1888–1981

Personanteckningar

Born in Ironwood, Michigan, where her father worked in the iron mines, they moved when Effie was still small, to Ely, Minnesota (also a mining town). Brother, Arnold, was born here. The next move was to Lead, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, noted for its gold mines. Effie enjoyed this place and started school here. Her mother's sisters, Ida (husband Harold Hendrickson) and Jennie also lived in Lead.

Effie writes "I was sorry when our parents decided to leave this place. Father found the work underground hard on the health, and there often were accidents with serious injuries, and he longed

for the sunshine and fresh air and open spaces, so the next move was to a farm. Our parents were able to purchase land near North Branch, Minnesota, not far from the grandparents, and in the area where many of the brothers and sisters of mother were settled with their families." Sisters, Charlotte and Hattie were born in North Branch.

In Minnesota "We first attended a school about a mile from our home. It was ungraded with 50 or more pupils under one teacher for a seven-month term. When our parents thought I should have higher education, they sent Arnold and me to the school in the town of North Branch, where they taught to Grade 10 at that time. When I finished there, I was sent to St. Cloud where I could get more high school subjects and also teacher training at the Normal School. In two years, we were allowed to teach on a Second Class Teachers' Certificate, and I put in my two years' teaching in Minnesota, which I had pledged to do, in lieu of paying tuition fees. I returned to Normal School for another year to get my first class teachers' certificate. There was one more year of teacher training to get to qualify for teaching high school work, but this I did not take. But I taught one more year in North Branch and had Grades 4 and 5. Charlotte took her Grade 9 and Hattie, Grade 8 at North Branch during that year."

After hearing reports of rich farmland in western Canada, father Nels made a trip up "was duly impressed and this led to a decision to sell in North Branch and buy in Canada."

Effie and her sisters Charlotte and Hattie arrived in 1912 from North Branch, Minnesota, to make a new home in Canada with their parents, Nels and Tilda, and brother, Arnold. They had waited until the end of the school term in Minnesota, and arrived in the Birdview area (later Donavon) on July 1, 1912. They passed through Regina the day of the cyclone, June 30, 1912, but did not hear about it until they reached Saskatoon the next morning.

Effie had been contacted by the Board of Trustees of the Grand Central School District to take over duties as teacher of their new school, to which she agreed. She later taught at other schools in the province, which included Frontenac and Poplar Bluff. After the death of her father in 1928, she gave up her career in teaching to be with her mother who became partly disabled with arthritis.

She then became active in church and community work. She was secretary-treasurer of the Donavon school board for many years and took part in various departments of the work in the Donavon United Church and other organizations of the community.