Godfrey J. Anderson (b. 14 November 1895; d. 23 April 1981) was the only child of Swedish immigrants living in Sparta, Michigan. In 1905 the family moved briefly to Tennessee, but returned to the area to live with an uncle on Bridge Street in Grand Rapids. Subsequently the family bought a farm in Ottawa County, one mile west of the Kent/Ottawa County line. Several other Swedish immigrant families owned farms nearby. Anderson attended Berlin High School (now Marne High School).

After completing high school, Anderson worked with his father on the farm, until being drafted in the spring of 1918. He saw service as part of the 337th Field Hospital of the 310th Sanitary Train, formed at Camp Custer, Michigan (once they had been stationed in Northern Russia, the unit acquired the nickname "Polar Bears"). The Polar Bears were sent to Archangel, Russia, upon the fall of the czarist government to the Bolsheviks, who immediately signed a peace treaty with Germany. Because the Allies still had supplies in Russia at that time, the Allied troops were sent there to guard those supplies and to care for the casualties of the resulting Bolshevik offensive.

After the war, Anderson returned to the family farm, and shortly thereafter began work in the Berkey & Gay Furniture Co. factory #1. A year later he left that job for one with the Johnson Furniture Co., where he worked until retiring, circa 1963.

Upon retirement, Anderson spent a great deal of time pursuing his avocation for history. Interested in history and photography from an early age, Anderson turned to photographing a changing Grand Rapids and Kent County, while also copying photographs of historic importance. He also documented the Grand River as its bridges changed from iron truss to concrete spans, and its dams and mills fell into disuse. He also collected a great deal on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and wrote his reminiscences, several of which are included in this collection. Anderson died on April 23, 1981, before completing a history of turn-of-the-century Sparta, on which he had been working.

Anderson and his wife had one son, Robert.