PEARSON, OTTO AND ROSA ANDERSON

by Fred J. Pearson

Entry F332 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Otto W. and Rosa Pearson

Otto Pearson was born in Sweden on April
6, 1884. He spent his fifth birthday on the
ocean on the way to America. In 1905 he came
to the Sandhills with the rest of the Pearson
family (see John and Johanna Pearson).

Rosa Anderson was born in Omaha of
Swedish parents on July 30, 1886. After
graduating from Central High School in
Omaha in 1905, she taught school in Valley,
Ravenna, and in Grant and Cherry counties.
Her parents and her brother came to the
Sandhills in 1909 to homestead. Rosa's
homestead was Sec. 31 T25 R34, which has
the Hooker county line for its southern
boundary. This land is about four miles
northwest of Hecla.

Toby Anderson, Rosa's uncle, bought land
southwest of Mullen in 1910. This land is still
in the family - owned by Erik Levine.

After Otto and Rosa were married on May
28, 1913 they lived several places in Cherry
County near their homesteads until 1917
when they bought a ranch further north near
Cyrus Wolfenden. In 1920 they sold their
place to Wolfenden and moved to Mullen.
The Wolfendens still refer to this land as the
"Pearson Meadow".

Not long after moving to Mullen Otto
bought the Ford agency, but the venture was
unsuccessful. They then tried ranching and
farming again one and one-half miles south
of Mullen. In 1925 they moved back into town
where Otto became the Standard Oil consig-
nee. From 1929 to 1932 Otto was a one-man
trucking company hauling salt and lumber
and feed from town to country and cattle and
hogs from country to town. This business
ended when he tried to drive to Omaha and
back without resting, missed a curve, and
wrecked the truck. From 1932 to 1935 he
drove the Mathews oil truck and during the
last year of his life was night man at the
Mathews service station. He died on May 27,
1936.

Rosa did many things to keep the family
together after Otto died. She took in washing,
cooked, and cleaned house, among other
things. She ran for county school superinten-
dent, and lost. She renewed her teacher's
certificate. Rosa (with Nels, who was then
twelve) left Hooker County in the fall of 1939
when she got a teaching job in Cherry County
at the Barnes School, south of Nenzel. She
died in Casper, Wyoming on November 3,
1968.

All of the six Otto Pearson children
attended school in Mullen, and four of them,
Wilma, Elinor, Fred and Otto, graduated
from Hooker County High School. Wilma
was married in 1935 and soon thereafter
moved to Casper, Wyoming. Elinor taught
school in Cherry and Hooker Counties, went
to Omaha for nurses training, and was
employed in a hospital in Brush, Colorado
when she died on December 16, 1941 of
complications following an appendectomy.
Fred also taught school in Hooker and Cherry
Counties until he went to the army in 1941.
Otto went to the CCC's when he graduated
from high school and later to the navy. None
of the family returned to Hooker County
after WWII.

Bernice lived with the family until 1938
when she was placed in Bethphage, a Lu-
theran home in Axtell, Nebraska. She lived
there and in other institutions in Wyoming
until her death on April 25, 1978.

Wilma, Otto and Nels now live in Casper,
Wyoming. Fred lives in Houston, Texas.