MAJ. JOHN T. ANDERSON

FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).  P. 671-672

          Maj. John T. Anderson, farmer, was born in 1836 in Hamilton County, the second of seven children of Edmund and Nancy (Turrentine) Anderson.  The father, born in Union County, Ky., about 1812, and of Scotch origin, was the son of John Anderson, born in Virginia, about 1781, and who at fourteen removed to Tennessee with his parents.  In 1818, John, Sr., having been married in Kentucky, located on the site of the McLeansboro fair ground, assisted in laying out the town and roads, and organizing the county.  Hamilton County’s first court was held in his house.  He served as deputy sheriff, and was elected coroner in 1830, receiving his commission from ex-Gov. Edwards.  He was a farmer.  Four of his eight children are living, all in Hamilton County.  He died in 1873, and his wife in 1846.  Edmund was married in Hamilton County when twenty-one, was always a farmer near McLeansboro, and died in 1864.  His wife, born about 1813 in Alabama, died in about 1879, a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  Our subject alternated teaching and educating himself, finishing at Princeton, Ky., after he was of age.  In 1862 he married Mary, daughter of James and Sarah Barnett, native of Tennessee.  Their child is James E.  She died in 1863, and in December, 1866, he married Martha E., daughter of Hillery and Sarah Patrick.  Their children are Charles L., Flora B., C. Hillery, Walter and Harry.  In August, 1862, he resigned his surveyorship, to which he had been elected in 1860, and enlisted in Company A, Eighty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was made captain, and in 1864 major.  After eighteen months in the regular, he was afterward in the mounted infantry, at Vicksburg and all through the Red River Campaign.  After three years’ service he returned to farming and stock raising.  Since 1866 he has been a resident of his present farm.  He owns 275 acres of choice land near McLeansboro.  He has been for many years a member of the school board, is an Odd Fellow, and he and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  Formerly a Democrat, voting for Douglas, he has since been a Republican.