Winnifred, the youngest child was born, and the mother passed away the next month, the arduous conditions of the new life and homesickness for the old home proving fatal to her. A year or so afterward the father married again, being united to Mary Laaps, and one child, William was born to them. The family remained at Lansing for two years, then went to Waukon, and later to Village Creek, Iowa. While living here Ludwig Andres went to Minneapolis to work as a stone mason on the great Pillsbury Mills, and here he was instantly killed, when a scaffolding on which he was working gave way. The loss of both father and mother filled the young lives of the Andres children with sadness as it meant their separation. Fred, who at that time was only ten years old, was taken by his uncle, Gustav Dee, while his younger brother, Charles A., went to live with another uncle, Theodore Dee, both farmers in Allamakee County, Iowa, and for three years the brothers did not see each other. Fred remained with his uncle until he was seventeen years old and then hired out at the rate of five dollars a month during the winter, in the meantime securing what schooling he could. He kept working out by the month and saved his money and for two years was in Western Iowa, still working out, also farmed for himself there and then broke up 160 acres in Adrian, Minn., which he later sold and in 1894 went to Rock County, Minn., and began renting land near Luverne. Like many other pioneer farmers of that region, Mr. Andres at times suffered many discouraging reverses; one year his crops were a total failure, so that he could not even pay his rent, and he was compelled to borrow corn to feed his horses, which he afterward repaid at the rate of two bushels for one. In 1903 he moved to Hutchinson County, S. D., where he bought 320 acres of land and raised three crops, and from there he removed to California in 1906. His brother, Charles A., had already located at Santa Ana, and Mr. Andres in the meantime had purchased his present home ranch of forty acres, at that time alfalfa land, paying $300 an acre for it.
After his removal, Mr. Andres at once began the improvement of his land, raising alfalfa, horses and hogs. He bred fine Percheron horses for a number of years from some full-blooded Percheron stock which he brought with him. He continued general farming and stockraising until 1911, when he began to set out walnut trees, the next year setting out his Valencia orange grove. Since that time he has given his time to developing his orchards to a high state of productivity and he is meeting with gratifying success. He has a never-failing well and has installed an electric pumping plant and laid over 5,000 feet of cement pipe for irrigation. He has remodeled his residence and the whole place reflects the intelligent care of its owners, as Mrs. Andres has been a true helpmate to him, aiding and encouraging him in all his undertakings. During his residence in Iowa Mr. Andres and John Gephardt owned and operated a Case threshing outfit and became quite expert in this line of work. With William E. and Arthur A. Schnitger he has run two threshing machines in Orange County, using them to thresh beans, converting the machines themselves into bean threshers.
The five brothers and sisters had not all been together since their mother died until the time of the Exposition at Portland, Ore., when they had a family reunion. The three sisters had been reared by different families in Iowa and took the names of their adopted parents. They are: Elsie, now the wife of Dr. F. G. Ulman of Enumclaw, Wash., who was a captain in the United States Army in the late war; Miss Marie Rockwell, formerly a high school teacher in Salem, Ore., is now a stenographer and bookkeeper at Portland, Ore.; and Winnifred, who is the wife of Rev. J. V. Knoll of Lansing, Iowa.
On October 17, 1896, when farming in Rock County, Minn., Mr. Andres was united in marriage with Miss Ora Luvan Savage, the Daughter of Oliver and Eliza (Young) Savage, the father being a native of New York, while the mother was born near Chicago, Ill. They were married in Wisconsin, moving later to Dodge County, Minn., where Mrs. Andres was born. There were three daughters in the Savage family: Emma is the wife of L. H. Owen of Pomona; Ora is Mrs. Andres; and Susie became the wife of Frank Welker, a merchant of Beaver Creek, Minn., where she died. By a former marriage Mr. Savage had two sons: Gibson, a resident of Los Angeles, passed away in 1917; and Elmer, who is a farmer at Waupun, Wis. Mrs. Andres was educated in Iowa, and afterwards became a school teacher, teaching four years in Rock County, Minn., where she met Mr. Andres, and one year in Minnehaha County, S. D. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Andres: Floyd E., a graduate of the Santa Ana high school in the class of 1919 is now a student at the U. C. at Berkeley; Marie Lillian died in 1904 at the age of seven years; and Charles Frederick. They are also rearing an adopted daughter, Ruth Estella Andres.
Mr. and Mrs. Andres are active in the membership of the Methodist Church at Garden Grove, Mr. Andres being a member of the official board, while Mrs. Andres is a teacher in the Sunday School and president of the Ladies' Aid Society; she was also prominent in Red Cross work during the war. Mr. Andres is a member of the Garden Grove Walnut Growers Association, the Garden Grove Orange Growers Association and the Garden Grove Farm Center, being a director and one of the moving spirits of the latter. Politically he is inclined to be non-partisan in his views, considering the best men and principles when voting, but always a firm advocate of temperance. Self-taught and self-made, he is a man of true worth, and both he and his estimable wife are popular in the community because of their generous, liberal views.
