Paul Anderson's father was Anders Magnus Andersson who came from Sweden in 1881 at the age of 25. He first settled in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Then he moved to Kearney, Nebraska where he received a 160-acre homestead. There he built their house out of sod where Paul's sister, brother, and himself were born. The family moved to Julesburg, Colorado to farm a section of land and then moved to Silverhill, Alabama in 1912 when Paul was 14 years old.

     I got this (story) from the founder of the town, the one who started Silverhill, Oscar Johnson.

     SILVERHILL - Paul Anderson was born just two blocks from Ft. Kearney, Neb., on Jan. 5, 1895, to a Swedish immigrant family.

     "I had three brothers and four sisters. I was was the caboose, or the baby, as my family called me," he said.

     Longevity seems to run in Anderson's family as a sister, Hannah, reached 101, and his grandmother on his mother's side was 116 when she died.

     In later years Anderson would grow to make a mark on- the Town of Silverhill as he served it as mayor, councilman, fireman, school trustee and as one of the planters of Silverhill's many avenues of oak trees.

     "My father was a preacher and farmer," Anderson said in his distinctive Swedish accent. "I grew up playing and going to school with Indians in a one room-school house. In those days the first pupil to arrive at school always had to make the fire. We used buffalo chips for fuel as there were no trees around for wood."

     At an early age Anderson recalls meeting Buffalo Bill Cody, whom he describes as, "a mean old man."

     Cody had a ranch about 20 miles from the Andersons'. "I think one of the reasons he killed all those buffalo was so the Indians would have to move on and he could get their land," Anderson said.

     As a marksman, Anderson said Cody was something else with a gun. He said he once saw Cody shoot playing cards out of a man's hand while in attendance at one of his famous Wild West Shows.

     Another famous personage Anderson encountered as a youngster was Jesse James, whom he describes as not being, "such a bad sort of fellow."

     Life for a frontier boy during those days of the Wild West was one filled with hard work, danger and adventure.

     "Most of the ranchers wore sidearms, and about the worst thing you could do was steal someone's horse," he said. "After we moved from Ft. Kearney to Axton, Colorado, we found two graves on my father's farm where a couple of horse thieves had been strung up on the spot and then buried." A hanging Anderson witnessed in Colorado took place when a sheriffs posse caught up with a man who had robbed a bank, and in the process killed a policeman. "It was a terrible sight for a 13- year-old to see," he said.

     Breaking horses provided a great deal of amusement for neighboring Indians who would watch as Anderson tried to break wild horses that had been captured from roving herds.

    In 1910, Anderson's father was talked into moving to Silverhill, where there was already a small colony of fellow Swedes.

    When asked how Silverhill got its name, Anderson said, "Oscar Johnson, the founder of Silverhill was a friend of mine. He told me the way the town got its name came from an incident that took place at a turpentine still, where Oscar Johnson Park is located today.

    "He said a man named Ward owned the still, and when he decided to close it down he gave a silver dollar to each of his hired help as severance pay. They all responded with a cheer for 'Silverhill.' He told me that himself."

    In 1917 Anderson went to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend the Sweeny Auto Repair and Machinist School. He then moved on to Chicago to work for a Cadillac dealership.

    "In 1918 I returned to Silverhill and opened my own garage. I later added a Chevrolet dealership," he said. "In 1921 I sold 150 cars."

    The year 1921 was also the year Silverhill went electric as Anderson, along with two other residents, provided this service by installing a gasoline-driven generator.

    Gov. Bibb Graves appointed Anderson to oversee the operation of the Works Projects Administration streets and roads projects, the park and cemetery project and the rat-killing project for Central Baldwin.

    "Some of the rats we killed were big enough to take on a cat," Anderson said. "We had to get rid of them as they were eating the farmers' grain."

    It was during those early years of Silverhill the oaks alleys, which it has become famous for, were planted by Anderson and other neighbors who were interested in the project.

    "When I lived on the Great Plains there were no trees. For Silverhill we decided there would be plenty of trees, so we went to the swamps near Marlow and brought back a lot of oaks for our town," he said.

    During the Great Depression, Anderson helped distribute food to the needy for the Red Cross.

    "Those were some tough days," he said. "Everyone was poor, and many people about starved."

    Anderson, along with other influential Baldwin Countians, such as Dr. W.C. Holmes, also helped get the Intracoastal Canal moving through Baldwin County.

    "In those days the dirt was moved by horses and mules pulling a scraper blade," he said.

    Two achievements Anderson is proud of are the fact Silverhill had a school before nearby Robertsdale, and also the founding of the Silverhill Fire Department.

    "When we first started out we had five or six buckets and a ladder," he said. "Back then people were very careful with fires, so we didn't have that many to go to. Grass fires we just let burn. In 1935 we got our first pumper truck, and today we have one of the finest volunteer fire departments, with some of the finest equipment, in the state."

    Still an active firefighter, Anderson is always the first to arrive at the Tuesday evening training sessions at the fire hall. There he puts on the coffee and prepares to greet the other firemen as they arrive.

    During the late 1930's, Anderson began working at Brookley Field in Mobile where he served as a foreman over 400 workers in the machine shop.

    "We could have done the same amount of work with 50 hardworking men who knew what they were doing," he said. "I couldn't get away from being a fireman even at Brookley." When Brookley Field closed in the 1960's, Anderson retired from Civil Service after reaching the mandatory retirement age.

    "I went fishing some, worked at the filing station some, and then began repairing small engines and lawn mowers," he said.

    A Mason, as well as a member of Silverhill's First Baptist Church, Anderson is a lifetime member of the Boy Scouts of America Council, and in 1983 was named Silverhill's Citizen of the Year.

     Today, he lives alone following the death of his wife of 61 years, Ruth, in 1994.

    "She was from Clark County," he said. "We met at a restaurant in Mobile. We got married in 1936 in Phoenix, Arizona, and honeymooned on a dude ranch. That sure was a long way to go to get married."

    As for living alone, Anderson says it's no problem, as there is no one to fuss with, or be bothered by.

    "My daughter Mary Conner and her husband reside in Silverhill. They have me over for supper quite often," he said.

    Another daughter, Alice Carlson, lives in Michigan.

     Anderson has 11 grandchildren and more great-grand children than he can count.

     When Anderson was in his early 90's he could be found at the Silverhill Ball Park popping popcorn and serving hot dogs and soft drinks.

     He still drives his car, and said, "I've never been in an accident where I hit anyone."

     His philosophy is simply to take life one day at a time. Most days you'll find him down at the station talking to his friends.

     "I'm the only one living from my generation, so I can lie all I want to," he said, "and who'll know the difference."

Anderson Garage about 1920.

Silverhill Motor Co. about 1931, nextdoor to the Olander Hotel.

     SILVERHILL - A celebrated pioneer in the town of Silverhill, 103-year-old Paul C. Anderson, died Monday at Mercy Medical hospice in Daphne.

     Anderson was a former mayor who had been involved in almost every facet of the town's life-government, business, school and community activism-since 1910, when his family moved to Silverhill when he was a teen-ager.

     "A piece of our history has left the community," said Frank Kucera, who served as Silverhill's mayor in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

     He said Anderson clearly loved his community and enjoyed sharing stories about its past. "Everybody in Silverhill always liked Mr. Anderson," said Kucera. "You could sit and listen to him tell stuff for hours and never get bored."

     Anderson was a big part of the town's history.

     Born in Kearney, Neb., to Swedish immigrants, Anderson retired in 1958 as a government worker. When he was 21 years old in 1917, he opened one of the county's first automobile garages. In 1921, he opened one of the area's first Chevrolet dealerships, Silverhill Motor Co. Automobiles sold for $640 each, Anderson recalled in a 1994 newspaper story. He served as a town councilman from 1932 to 1934 until he became Silverhill's second mayor in 1934. He was a trustee at Silverhill School from 1928 until 1936.

     Anderson helped found the Silverhill Fire Department in the 1920s, and regularly attended meetings until about a year ago when his health began to decline, Kucera said.

     He has often been credited with the initiative to plant the town's signature oak trees, which shade Alabama 104. For decades after that, he sat on the town's Tree Board and was the leading organizer of the town's elaborate Arbor Day celebration every year. He was actively involved in projects for the Silverhill First Baptist church, Boy Scouts of America and the Masonic lodge. On his 100th birthday in 1996, county commissioners proclaimed "Paul Anderson Day," and the town of Silverhill held a luncheon in his honor.

     He is survived by two daughters, Alice Rhode of Iron River, Mich., and Mary Connor of Gulf Shores; 10 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.

     Visitation will be held today from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mack Funeral Home in Robertsdale. Funeral services will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Silverhill First Baptist Church. Burial will take place in the Silverhill Cemetery in Silverhill.