JOHN A. ANDEREGG. Though he has achieved success and prestige as one of the able members of the bar of his native state and is now engaged in the practice of his profession at Sauk City, judicial center of Benton County, Mr. Anderegg has had a career marked by varied and benignant activities, not the least of which were those of his effective identification with the pedagogic profession and his service as a member of the Minnesota Legislature. He has been specially earnest and zealous in the furtherance of the educational interests of the state, is known as a man of broad and well-fortified convictions and distinctive civic loyalty, and is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Minnesota.

On the homestead farm of his father, near Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, John Albert Anderegg was born on the 9th of July, 1861. He is a son of Andrew and Mary (Born) Anderegg, both of whom were born and reared in Switzerland, as members of sterling old families of that fair little European republic, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1856 the parents immigrated to America and in the following year they numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers of Blue Earth County, Minnesota, where the father reclaimed a productive farm from the virgin wilds and where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives, secure in the high esteem of all who knew them.

He whose name initiates this article was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and after making good use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of his native county he there entered the Minnesota State Normal School at Mankato, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1883. Thereafter he devoted eight years to successful service as a teacher in the public schools. Within this period he was for one year instructor in English in the high school at New Ulm, and later he served as superintendent of the public schools of Jackson, county seat of the Minnesota county of the same name. While thus finding insistent demands upon his time and attention, Mr. Anderegg had the energy and ambition to carry forward also the careful study of law, and he made substantial progress in the absorption and assimilation of the principles of jurisprudence, though circumstances have at times deflected him from the work of the profession for which he carefully prepared himself. From 1890 to 1893 he was engaged in the general merchandise business at Kasota, Lesueur County, and in the meanwhile he continued the study of law, with the result that in 1896 he proved himself eligible for and was admitted to the bar of his native state. His professional novitiate was served at St. Peter, Nicollet County, and he finally removed from that place to Lesueur, where he was engaged in active and successful practice for a period of fifteen years and where he served as justice of the Municipal Court. From Lesueur County he was elected a member of the lower house of the State Legislature, in which he served during the general assemblies of 1903 and 1905, and in which he made an admirable record. He was active in the deliberations on the floor of the House and in those of the various committees to which he was assigned. Among the important bills introduced by him and ably championed was that presented in the session of 1905, and making provision for the permitting of rural school districts in the state to centralize or consolidate their schools, reducing the number and thereby making possible the raising of the standard of the work. It is under the provisions of this law, in the enactment of which Mr. Anderegg was most influential, that the efficiency of the rural schools in the various sections of the state has been notably advanced and that the high school in his present home district was established. In the Legislature he served as chairman of the Committee on Education and also as a member of other important committees that profited greatly from his counsel and loyal service.

After his retirement as a member of the Legislature Mr. Anderegg held for two years the position of executive manager of the State Bank of Long Lake, Hennepin County, and in July, 1914, he established his residence at Sauk Rapids, where he has since been engaged in the successful practice of law and where his clientele has become one of important and representative order. Mr. Anderegg is a republican in his political proclivities and allegiance and has been active in the furtherance of the party cause. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

On the 22d of November, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Anderegg to Miss Lillie May Turrittin, of Kasota, this state, and they have six children: Rupert A., a student in the Cooperative University of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the course of civil engineering; Wayne L., clerk in a drug store at Sauk Rapids; Lillian May and Albert J., students in the high schools of their home city; and the younger children are George F. and Frederick H., the former of whom is a grade student in the public school. (Vol 3, p. 1356)