Carl and Anna Anderson were natives of Sweden who came to America just before their son, John Peter, was born on May 6, 1886 of Kiron, Iowa. There were seven boys and four girls in this big family. Soon after baby John was born, the parents settled in northeastern Nebraska near Hartington.
John had hoped to become a physician when he grew up. But in 1903 he entered Union College at Lincoln, Nebraska, in the Swedish Department, preparing for the ministry to earn his money. His work at the school was to cut wood for the kitchen stove where Mary Hanson was the cook. But Sherman Nagel claimed Mary as his sweetheart. Together they all talked about going to China as missionaries some day, little knowing that that dream would come true. As graduation drew near, John prayed earnestly for guidance as to where he should labor. The very next day he received a letter from a Swedish believer stating that his brother would pay John's salary for a year if he would go to China. Within a few days Elder W. A. Spicer, Secretary of the General Conference, visited Union College and John showed him the letter. Elder Spicer replied: “You will be hearing from us.” Soon a letter was received with the authorization and a ticket to China. The letter ended with the words, “Goodbye, we'll meet you in heaven.” The boat sailed from Seattle August 20, 1906. John's fiance'e was to come with the Nagels. But when the time came for her to sail, she declined. This made him the first single man to go to China as a missionary.
His first assignment was to be dean of boys and teacher in the newly-opened school for young men in Canton. Early in the work in Canton, five young men came to the boy's school who were Christians of another church, but became very interested in Adventism and all of them joined the church and became workers. J. P. learned the Hakka language from these boys and was soon asked to pioneer the work in Hakaland with headquarters in Wai Chow, 150 miles east of Canton up the East River. Little did they know the former renters in the building had small pox. It wasn't long before John came down with the illness and was deathly sick with pox from head to toe. The students all found lodging elsewhere. All missionaries but Amanda Van Scoy, a single lady who had come from America in 1904 to teach in the Girls Secondary School, had gone to Shanghai to attend the Division Meeting. Amanda brought him food and TLC and soon a romance began which joined their lives.
Elder Spicer tells this about Amanda in his book Our Story of Missions(486): “Mrs. J .P. Anderson began the school work for these people, having first learned the Cantonese and literary Wenli. Now she learned Hakka. Later, as Elder Anderson's work took him to Swatow, she mastered Hakka for school work and translating. She was depended upon to the day of her recent death for critical language work.”
Two daughters, Helen and Hazel, who became nurses, were born at Wai Chow. The Sherman Nagel family joined the Andersons two years later and both families were very close friends the rest of their mission service. Amanda died suddenly in 1920. The girls moved over to live with the Nagels while John worked in the South Seas—Java, Bangkok, Singapore, and French India China—raising funds to help establish the China Training Institute at Chiao Tu Tsing, Kiangsu.
Two years later, near Christmas time, Ethel Edwards of Takoma Park, Maryland came to China and was married to John. She had been a worker at the General Conference office for 20 years and remembered typing the letters which Elder Spicer had written John when he first went to China. Neither had formerly met until her boat arrived at Shanghai. How happy the children on the compound were when the new mother moved into the empty house next door. She became the treasurer of the mission, and helped to teach the four American children. She was interned in Hong Kong while John was caught in Canton during World War II and was returned on the S.S. Gripsholm when prisoners were exchanged. She did not see John for several years until the war was over. They then returned to South China. Broken down in health, Ethel's body could not take the strain and she died in 1948 in Shanghai.
In May of 1949 John married Rachel Landrum in Hong Kong. She too had been an internee in the Philippines for the duration of World War II. As John had not had a furlough for 15 years, the couple's wedding trip took them to Europe, where they visited his ancestral home, Sweden, as well as Denmark and England.
There was no retirement. John was invited to return to South China with headquarters in Hong Kong and Rachel working in the Union Treasury Dept. as auditor. John also did evangelist work for the next five years. In 1957 they returned to the United States, locating in Lake County, California at Buckingham Park, where they resided.
His life had been filled with many thrilling experiences of Providence, protection and guidance. One famous trip was the time Elder C .C. Crisler of the China Division visited John's mission area. They traveled by horseback, accompanied by a hostler and pack mule. Bandits interrupted the trip by firing a shot at the travelers. The men dismounted at once and put their hands upon the backs of their horses. The bandits took Elder Crisler's glasses, pen, etc., but John had managed to slip the contents of his pockets into the puttees around his legs. In the meantime the bandits ordered the hostler to lead the mule up the hill. “Anyone able to rob people should be able to lead a mule,” was the hostler's reply. The trouble was that the mule prepared to kick the robbers when they tried to handle him themselves. Thus they did not find the money on the back of the pack mule and decided to leave, but not until John had advised the robbers to return Elder Crisler's things.
After the bandits left, John and the hostler noticed the way the mule was standing with lowered head. They examined the pack saddle and discovered a wound when the shot had hit the mule's back and entered its body. The mule died very shortly.
John put the pack saddle on his horse and the party reversed their direction, returning to the village not many miles from the scene. The bandits were seen in the village watching to see if the missionaries were reporting the incident to the authorities. However John and Elder Crisler returned to Wai Chow without reporting as such procedure would have resulted in the authorities burning the bandits' village, harming innocent people in the process. During those trying years of revolution in China it was with much difficulty that the mission program was carried out. But he never once left his work.
During his internment in Canton he authored a book in which he wrote Ethel a letter every day for four years while he was under the watch of Japanese guards. He hid the letters in the attic of the house. When liberated he was able to bring the material back with him.
He died at Lakeport, California on March 18, 1967. Elder Longway officiated at both Amanda's, Ethel's funerals and finally at John's. He gave 51 years of his life for China. He loved people and was never happier than when helping and encouraging those in need. Elder Longway closed his remarks with the following paragraphs:
“John also had a real sense of humor. Our last visit with him on the day he fell asleep is a precious memory. He was lucid and when reminded of old times in China, he responded with cheerfulness and vigor. When asked if he would like some lychees, of which he was very fond, the word came quick and loud: “about a half bushel of them!” So dear Brother John Peter sleeps peacefully until Jesus comes. He will send His angels to call you, and they will say, 'Wake up, John, the Master wants you to come.' And I hope to be there with him and the two of us with our loved ones, gather lychees from the tree of life.”