Side 1Rhinard I. Anderson began operating a garage and battery service station business here on April 14, 1914. By 1930, it transitioned into the R. I. Anderson Machine Shop.
Rugnar (Rhinard) Isidor Andersson (Anderson) was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 14, 1882, immigrating to the United States as an infant in 1883. First settling in Symco, the Anderssons relocated to Northland in 1900. He was schooled in blacksmithing and machining by his father, Charles (Carl).
Having focused on machine shop activities through the 1930s, in the early 1940s Anderson commenced gaining area renown as a fire truck builder and firefighting equipment parts
Side 2
producer. This was a chance development, he having offered to equip a new fire truck for the Iola Fire Department, it was the first of 25 he crafted from then until the late 1950s for small towns nestled around central Wisconsin.
Built on a 1938 REO Speedwagon chassis in 1942, that first fire truck was outfitted with the necessary structure and custom-made specialty parts, cast and machined in his small foundry and shop. These and similar parts - featuring his "A (circled)/R. I. ANDERSON/IOLA, WIS." trademark - were also crafted and sold to other firefighting equipment builders as late as 1969
Anderson
sold the shop building to the Village of Iola on April 16, 1970. Village president Carl Waller received the keys on Sept. 28, 1970. Torn down, the remains were burned on March 23, 1971.
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