Captain Irving Anderson was a Merchant Marine captain who grew up at 36 School St. in South Portland. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

At South Portland Historical Society, we recently received donations of several items related to Capt. Irving Anderson and his family. Among the items are Irving’s telescope and his gorgeous Bacon Professional FF five-string banjo. Let’s take a look at this interesting Ferry Village man and his family.

Irving’s parents, August P. Anderson and his wife Annie Pearson, were both immigrants from Sweden. They married in Portland in 1881 and August soon joined the U.S. Revenue-Marine (later renamed the Revenue Cutter Service, a predecessor to the U.S. Coast Guard); his work took him to faraway places so Annie was left at home to raise their children. Just after marrying, they lived in Portland where their first three kids were born – Mary, Oscar and Emma. Around 1890, they rented a home on School Street in South Portland (known as Cape Elizabeth at the time) and had two more children – Harold and Irving. Annie would later purchase that home at 36 School St.

Their son Irving was born in 1893 and would end up in the seafaring life like his dad. He was only 20 years old when his dad died in 1913. Irving went to work as a quartermaster for the Eastern Steamship Company, which ran ships between Portland and Boston.

The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917. An article in the Evening Express on Sept. 24, 1917, mentioned the local Navigation School: “Not less than 4,000,000 tons of new shipping will go into commission under the American Flag in the next two years and the United States Shipping Board needs for these ships – 5,000 new watch officers and 5,000 engineers. In an effort to secure this number of men capable of filling officers’ berths the Government has established free schools of instruction, one of which is located in the Portland City Building with Captain Frank A. Wilson as instructor. At the present time there are over 20 students in the free school in this City who are receiving absolutely free of charge training which will permit them to take examinations for licenses as watch officers.”

Irving Anderson was one of these young men who attended the Navigation School in Portland; he both enrolled in the school and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force in June of 1917.

He was called into active duty in the Navy in May of 1918 and served as an ensign. After his discharge in 1919, he continued working in the Merchant Marine. Although much of his life was at sea, he still married – Marion Payne in December 1919 – and they had a daughter born a year later. His wife Marion and their daughter lived with her parents, Lincoln and Abbie Payne, when Irving was off at sea. Marion was only 36 years old when she reportedly died of tuberculosis in 1931; their daughter was then raised by Marion’s parents.

Irving received his captain’s papers and, in 1928, took command of a ship for the first time, the steamer Louis K. Thurlow. He would command many ships over his lifetime. When the U.S. entered World War II, given his level of experience, he bravely served in the Merchant Marine throughout that war, in command of ships taking supplies to troops in Europe and in the Pacific. In an article in the Evening Express on Feb. 4, 1948, they noted, “Capt. Irving H. Anderson, merchant marine, has gone to Boston to resume command of the SS Boston after a vacation spent with his brothers, Oscar and Harold Anderson of School Street. This was his first leave since 1941.”

Irving was known as a hard worker, but also a very pleasant person. Carol Campbell, who bought the 36 School St. home from Anderson descendants in 1977, remembers Irving Anderson and the rest of the family. According to Campbell, “Irving never smoked, never drank, and often wore a fur hat. He got a new car every year – a Cadillac – but he didn’t drive very often.” She remembers that he’d take her grandmother, his sister and a friend for a drive in his Cadillac for fun.

For more photographs and artifacts related to the Anderson family, or other families and local places, South Portland Historical Society offers a free online museum with over 17,000 images available for viewing. You can find it at sphistory.pastperfectonline.com and, if you appreciate what we do, feel free to make a donation by using the donation button on the home page. If you have photographs or other information to share about South Portland’s past, we hope you will reach out to us. South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.