Matilda (Tillie) Anderson
Matilda was the first child of David and Olivia to be born in the United States. She was born in Illinois but we do not know where. Like her older sister, she grew up in Iowa County, Iowa, and went to school there. The family first lived in York Township and then in Hilton Township where the farm was a couple miles south of Marengo.
She and her sister Mary Ellen appear to have been quite close. They were both married in the same year, 1895, apparently to neighboring farmers. In 1910 they were living on adjoining farms in Honey Creek Township, Iowa County. Ten years later both families were living in Marengo, both on Washington Street, but no next door to each other this time. But then Matilda and her husband moved. At the time of Mary Ellen’s death in 1929 they were living near Ladora, a small town southwest of Marengo.
Matilda married John Lacher in 1895. He was born in Iowa about a month before Matilda and had been living with his parents on a farm in Honey Creek Township. Matilda and John lived on a farm there for about 20 years. In 1896 they had a daughter, Elsie, and in 1900 a son, Irvan. By 1920 Elsie had married but Irvan still lived at home. At that time their home was in Marengo where John was working as a teamster doing street work. Their next move was to a farm near Ladora in Marengo Township. They were still living there in 1940.
In December 1933 Matilda sent Christmas greetings to her brother William from Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska. Her oldest brother, Andrew, had a daughter, Marian, living there. Perhaps she was spending some time with her niece.
John died in 1946 and Matilda died in 1949. Both John and Matilda are buried in the IOOF Cemetery at Marengo in the Anderson family plot.
We have no other documented information about Matilda. What we do have are the memories of a nephew, Matilda’s brother William’s son, Edward L. According to him, Matilda and John went to San Francisco and were living there when an earthquake struck in 1903. They spent several nights in a cemetery for safety. Census records for 1900 and 1910 show them living on a farm in Honey Creek Township, Iowa County, Iowa. But sometime during that decade they could have moved to California and back. Finally, he says that Tillie was living in San Francisco when she died.