Rev. Jens Peter (J. P.) Anderson was born on 24 Sep 1859 in Bording, Ringkobing Amt, Denmark, the first child of four born to Peter Kresten Anderson and Jensine Tygesen. He emigrated with his family in about 1876 at age 17 from Bording, Denmark to Concord, Massachusetts by way of Boston. At age 22 on 24 Dec 1881 in Concord, Massachusetts Jens Peter married 29 year old Helen Edwardsen [Beckvold], a Norwegian immigrant from Löten, Norway and from the marriage had five children, two of whom would reach adulthood and twins Helen and Jens Peter who died within a year of their birth in 1888 and Victor Wesley who died at the age of one in 1891 following his mother's death in 1890, possibly of complications from childbirth. Sigurd Edwin was born in 1882 and died in 1916. Theodore Peter was born in 1884 and died in 1970.
Following the death of his first wife in 1890, Jens Peter at age 34 married a second time in Concord, Massachusetts on 27 Feb 1893 to 27 year old Hannah Magnusen Eck an immigrant from Sweden and from that marriage had eight more children beginning with Carl Wesley in 1893, John Fletcher in 1895, Helen Olivia in 1897, Stanley Chapman in 1900, Albert Henry in 1901, William McKinley in 1902, Hannah Jensina in 1906 and Ester C. in 1909. Jens Peter Anderson attended the Norwegian-Danish Methodist Episcopal seminary located at Evanston, Illinois from 1891 to about 1893 and returned as pastor of the Concord Methodist Episcopal church. After six years he was transferred to the Norwegian-Danish conference in the Midwest where he served in churches as pastor and later as district superintendent until his retirement in 1927 at age 68. The churches he served in the Midwest included 2 years at Leland and Lee, Illinois, 4 years in Manistee, Michigan, 6 years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2 years at Minneapolis First Church, 6 years as Minneapolis district superintendent, 8 years at Forest City and 2 years at Austin church in Chicago. Following retirement he served as supply pastor at Columbia Heights, Minnesota, a northern suburb of Minneapolis. Rev. Jens Peter Andersen died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the 5 Oct 1933 at age 74. Funeral services on 9 Oct 1933 at 1:30 p.m. in the Enger Funeral Home at Grant Street and Park Avenue were led by Rev. Carl W. Schevenius, with tributes by Rev. H. K. Madsen, sermon by Rev. Peter Martin Petersen, who was encouraged to enter the ministry by Rev. Jens Peter Andersen when in Concord. Rev. Edward Evensen read the obituary. In all, twenty-one clergymen were present for the funeral service. Rev. Jens Peter Andersen was interred at the Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.