Salvation Army honors officer with grave marker 106 years after her death

Salvation Army Officer Emma Anderson dedicated her life to helping fellow Swedish immigrants establish new lives in Minnesota and across the country.

When she died in 1916 at age 37, she had risen to the rank of captain. A large funeral procession marched through St. Paul's East Side to mourn her death. She was laid to rest at Union Cemetery in Maplewood. But no marker was ever placed on her grave and her final resting place went unrecognized for more than a century.

Now the Salvation Army will honor her again, adding a simple granite marker to her burial site . The Men's Fellowship of the Maplewood Salvation Army Lakewood Corps raised $800 to add the stone and will hold a dedication at 10 a.m. Saturday. The public is invited.

"Her life needs to be remembered and honored," said Salvation Army Maj. Paul Moore, who uncovered Anderson's story and rallied efforts to buy her grave marker.

Moore, an amateur genealogist and historian, stumbled across a reference to Anderson's service as an officer and her death. He later found a photo of Anderson's funeral procession on St. Paul's East Side. The photo shows two long lines of mourners, many in uniform. The procession included flag bearers and a brass band.

"It was quite impressive," Moore said.

An article on her death appeared in a local Swedish-language newspaper. So many had come out to honor Anderson, but there was no record of her work and Moore later realized her grave in her family's cemetery plot was unmarked.

"She must have touched so many people. Her story must have resonated," Moore said.

Moore wanted Anderson to be remembered. So he pieced together her story.

Anderson was born in Sweden in 1879. Her maiden and married names were both Anderson.

She and family members emigrated in 1899, part of a migration of more than 1 million Swedish people who journeyed to the United States. Anderson and her family settled near Swede Hollow on St. Paul's East Side.

Within four months of her arrival, Anderson married John Anderson, a 38-year-old widower and father of three. John Anderson fell ill and died in 1901.

In 1904, Anderson joined the Salvation Army, a Protestant church and charity founded in England along paramilitary lines in 1865 that had expanded to countries around the globe. Anderson served for three years in East St. Paul helping new immigrants find jobs, learn English and assimilate into American life.

She traveled to New York and was commissioned as a lieutenant. She served all over the country including in Montana, Colorado, Illinois and Washington. She returned to St. Paul in 1909 and again served on the East Side, where she was promoted to captain.

Anderson's final assignment was to the Scandinavian Division headquarters in Seattle, which ended after six months when she was furloughed for health reasons. Her cause of death was listed as an enlarged heart and manic depression.

"Little is known about her final year in St. Paul, but it doesn't take much to feel her pain across the years," Moore said. "Her adult years were earmarked by illness and loss, and much of her time was spent in a Salvation Army uniform traveling and serving fellow Scandinavians."

Moore did find one small, grainy photo of Anderson on a larger group collage. She is wearing a black bonnet and a high-necked dress.

While nearly all new burial sites today are marked with stones or monuments, that wasn't always the case, said Dominic Pierre, superintendent at Union Cemetery.

There are 28,000 burials at Union Cemetery and 20,000 memorials, Pierre said.

Children and young adults were often buried in family plots in unmarked graves a century ago. Sometimes families simply couldn't afford a marker or there was no living kin to make those arrangements.

"It's not as uncommon as you might think," Pierre said.