Morrisite.org › Roll of membership › Niels Anderson
Niels Anderson (1835–1926)
A Danish-born Morrisite who was at the fort during the siege, stayed at Soda Springs, and married Mary Christofferson there in 1863.
- On the roll
- Anderson, Niels, in the 1861–62 roll of membership printed in 1886
- Born
- October 1835, Denmark (Family Tree)
- Died
- 1926, Idaho (Family Tree)
- June 1862
- Taken at Kington Fort: printed as “N. Anderson” in the Deseret News list of June 25, 1862, held to $1,500 bail for the March 1863 term
- Later path
- Stayed with a Morrisite group. Among the few Morrisites who stayed at Soda Springs (Anderson, p. 162); listed with the Morrisite families who came with Connor in May 1863 (Shupe, Caribou County Chronology, p. 13).
- Family Tree
- FamilySearch LC37-Q71, Niels Anderson (1835–1926). Birth and death dates (October 3, 1835 – March 4, 1926) match the Andersons' gravestone plaque at Soda Springs; husband of Mary Anne Christoffersen (KWJN-1KY). The tree also has duplicate records for him (PQ7X-PXV, 9JDV-BD2). Identified by editor (FamilySearch).
- Connected names on the roll
- Christofferson, Maria; Christofferson, Maria 2
What the sources say
At the fort during the siege; later said the posse allowed too little time to surrender (Anderson, p. 114). Married Mary Christofferson (probably Christofferson, Maria), wounded by the first cannon shot of the siege, on July 30, 1863, and was among the few Morrisites who stayed at Soda Springs (Anderson, p. 162); Shupe gives the date as July 20, 1863, calls theirs the first marriage in Idaho Territory, and says he was the blacksmith at Connor's post (Shupe, Caribou County Chronology, p. 13). Their son Abraham C. Anderson was born on February 20, 1865 (Shupe, p. 16). The family's gravestone plaque at Soda Springs calls him “the father of the Anti-Mormon Party” in Idaho, and a National Park Service marker there says he and other Morrisites began the anti-polygamy campaign that ended in the Idaho test oath barring Mormons from voting. He died in 1926 (FamilySearch LC37-Q71). His 1903 letter to Joseph F. Smith is cited in Anderson's bibliography (Anderson, p. 237).
Sources
- Anderson, C. LeRoy. Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites (Revisited). Logan: Utah State University Press, 2010. Pages cited: 114, 162, 237.
- Shupe, Verna Irene. Caribou County Chronology. Colorado Springs, CO: Print Craft Press, [1930]. HathiTrust
- Deseret News, June 25, 1862, p. 412.
- FamilySearch Family Tree, LC37-Q71. Consulted November 3, 2026.
Cite this page
Rogers, Eric Paul, ed. “Niels Anderson (1835–1926).” Morrisite.org. https://morrisite.org/person/niels-anderson.html. Updated November 3, 2026.