Frank LaFayette Anders was born November 10, 1875 at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory to Frank and Anna Anders who were stationed there with the Infantry. The next year, after his father was discharged, the family moved to Fargo. His father died in 1890 of wounds suffered in the Civil War. Mr. Anders, at 15, then left school to work as a call boy for Northern Pacific Railroad and later learned the machinist's trade in their shops. In 1894 he enlisted in the National Guard and was serving his second enlistment when his unit was sent to the Philippines in 1898. There, as a member of Young's Scouts, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor. At his death he was the oldest living holder of this medal in the United States.

In 1899, he returned to the United States where he worked for mining interests in Salt Lake City. In 1902, with only a seventh grade education and some time at Dakota Business College (1895), he decided to attend Ripon College in Wisconsin. In 1906 he was awarded the first scholarship given by the University of Wisconsin, where he studied Civil Engineering. He was chief engineer with a Utah Smelting Corporation until 1909 when he returned to Fargo. In 1910 he taught mathematics at the North Dakota Agricultural College, and from 1910 to 1920 was City Engineer for Fargo, during which time he designed, helped construct, and operated the Fargo Filtration plant. In 1918 he was commissioned a captain in the Engineering Corps and stationed at Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he wrote a history of the camp. Then, in 1919 he went to Camp Funston at Fort Riley, Kansas where he was in charge of hospital facilities, also serving in Washington and at the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan.

From 1921 to 1932, he served as Receiver and General Manager of the bankrupt Lucky Strike Coal Company of Zap, North Dakota. From 1922 to 1932, he was Regimental Utility Officer and had charge of a five year construction program at Camp Grafton. He was also a captain in the Fifth Engineers. He served on the Fargo City Water commission from 1929 to 1931, and from 1931 to 1934 he was secretary and construction engineer on the Board of State Capitol Commissioners at Bismarck. He also worked during the 1920's and 1930's as an engineer on the promotion of the Missouri River Diversion project and was president of the Great Plains Development Association.

In 1910, Mr. Anders married Mary Bertha Hargrave of Ripon, Wisconsin. They had two children, Marion and Franklin. Major Anders died January 23, 1966 and was buried in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Major Anders was Senior Vice Commander of the Legion of Valor, belonged to the Legion of Honor, Spanish War Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Order of Indian Wars, Army and Navy Club, American Legion, and Fargo-Moorhead Officer's Mess. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Society of American Military Engineers. He belonged to the Order of Scabbard and Blade and held the McKinley Congressional Medal. He was a Mason, Scottish Rite, member of the Congregational Church, and president of the Commons Club of Fargo, 1916. He was also president of the Society to Mark Custer's Trail.