Making a Home
A Community in Conflict
Working for a Living
Farming in the Great Corn Belt
Abraham Lincoln in McLean County
Mechanics Needed!
Travel by automobile and truck meant the demise of jobs that utilized horses. McLean County needed workers for auto sales and service.
Carl “Swede” Anderson (1901 -1967) had only an eighth grade education. But in 1918 he began an apprenticeship as an automobile electrician with the Bloomington Battery Service Company. The repair shop, founded that year, was one of the first in Bloomington. Swede learned how to repair electric motors and batteries on the job.
Swede (middle with apron) posed with other Bloomington Battery employees in this circa 1930 image of the business.
Ford Model T ignition coil, circa 1925
Swede would have learned how to repair and install ignition devices, like this one from a Ford Model T.
Donated by: Jim Kater
908.925
Splitdorf spark plug, circa 1924
Spark plugs were another component he learned about. This one was used in a Stutz automobile.
Donated by: Jim Kater
908.959
After 18 years with Bloomington Battery, Swede asked himself the question, “Should I stay or should I go?”
Would you stay at the same job more than 18 years, or would you look for work elsewhere?
In 1936 Swede and Thurlo Little opened Anderson & Little. The new partners worked in competition with Bloomington Battery. When that partnership dissolved it became Anderson Auto Electric.
Bloomington Pantagraph advertisement, Sunday, August 16, 1936
Automobile engine timing light, circa 1934
View this object in Matterport
Donated by: Jim Kater
908.956
Swede ran Anderson Auto Electric until he retired in 1957, when he sold the shop due to ill health.