17. Lars Anderson

Lars Anderson was born in Loiten, Norway in 1871. He came to Concord in 1889, one of a number of Norwegian immigrants who settled in the Concord area in the late nineteenth century. Anderson spent several years working on local farms before entering the grocery business. He married Pauline Nelson in 1892, the same year he went to work at W.B. and D.L. Chamberlin’s thriving dry goods and grocery store in Carlisle center. When W.B. Chamberlin sold out his interest in the business in 1898, Anderson purchased it and the business continued as Chamberlin & Anderson. When W.B. Chamberlin returned to the store as an employee in 1899, Anderson sold his interest in the business to him and left Carlisle to work for the firm of Towle & Kent in Concord.

In 1913, Lars Anderson and his son Leslie bought the business from Towle & Kent, establishing a partnership known as Anderson’s Market. The business was incorporated in 1929.

Active in civic life and successful in business, Lars Anderson died on May 9, 1941. His obituary reads, in part: “Mr. Anderson’s passing is a shocking loss to the community at large as well as to his many friends, and his cheery, solicitous greeting will long be missed on the Milldam in Concord.”