GRANTSBURG Was founded by Canute Anderson, in 1865, in section 14, town 38, range 19. He built a flour and saw mill, the first in the county, a good hotel, and opened a store. It became the centre of trade for the county, prospered continuously, and now (in 1886) contains a good court house, built at a cost of $7,000 (burned December, 1887), a school house, four churches, two hotels, five stores and numerous shops and dwellings. There are two resident lawyers and one physician. Grantsburg is the terminus of the St. Paul & Duluth (branch) railroad, completed in 1884. The scheme of building a branch road to connect with the St. Paul & Duluth railroad at Rush City was long cherished by Canute Anderson, and through his efforts the road was finally built. The county voted $20,000 bonds, at seven per cent interest, which bonds the state of Wisconsin cashed. The road was graded from Grantsburg to the St. Croix river in 1878, from Rush City to St. Croix in 1882. The St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company built the railroad and assumed the bonded indebtedness, payable in fifteen annual installments. Cars ran to the St. Croix river in 1883. The bridge over the St. Croix, completed in 1883, cost $20,000. The road was opened to Grantsburg Jan. 22, 1884. At this opening over a thousand persons were present, five hundred of whom came in on the train. Canute Anderson made an address of welcome, followed by James Smith, president of the road. Congratulatory letters were read from Hons. S. S. Fifield, Henry M. Rice, and W. H. C. Folsom, the tenor of which was highly complimentary to Mr. Anderson, and full of hope for the future of the railroad and its terminus. CANUTE ANDERSON was born in Norway, 1830. He came to America in 1851, and three years later settled in the northeast quarter of section 2, township 37, range 19, making a large stock farm, part of it being a fine natural meadow, with running stream. In 1858 the first post office in the county (called Anderson) was established at his house, and he was appointed postmaster. In 1878 he represented Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, and Polk counties in the legislature. He is and ever has been a master spirit in his county, using all his influence to further the interests of his adopted home. Many of the early settlers were poor,--strangers in a strange land,--and for them Mr. Anderson's house was ever a resort. It was also an intelligence office, where the inquiring immigrant could obtain reliable information as to the country and its resources, and facilities to the settler. In 1860 Mr. Anderson was married to Catharine Nelson, daughter of Magnus Nelson, one of Burnett county's first settlers.