Anderson, Richard C. (Richard Clough), 1750-1826

Richard Clough Anderson was born on January 12, 1750 at Goldmine, Hanover County, Virgina, to Robert Anderson, the son of a Scottish immigrant, and Elizabeth Clough. Richard was educated at home and at the age of 16 entered into an apprenticeship with Patrick Coots, a local merchant. He served with the Hanover Minutemen and the 5th Virginia Regiment during the Revolutionary War, and participated in the early reconnaissance efforts near Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776; in June 1783, he was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Toward the end of the war, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and after the war he was appointed surveyor general for western lands distributed to Virginia veterans. He moved to Middletown, near Louisville, Kentucky, and became the first master of the Lexington Masonic Lodge. He died on October 15, 1826. Anderson married twice: Elizabeth Clark (m. November 24, 1787) and, following her death in 1795, Sarah Marshall (m. September 17, 1797). His son, Richard C. Anderson, Jr., became a member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky.

From the guide to the Richard Clough Anderson papers, Anderson, Richard Clough papers, 1821-1822, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)

Surveyor-General of the Virginia Military District.

From the description of Papers of the Virginia Military District in Ohio, 1787-1839. (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 18447690

The papers in this collection include seven entry books, an estimated 4,400 to 4,800 surveys, and one index to entries, all referring to land in the Virginia Military District lying between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio. the District and other land in Kentucky was granted to Virginia by Congress in 1784 to settle its claims to the Northwest Territory and reward its veterans of the Revolution. Along with a related collection in the Illinois Historical Survey of the University of Illinois at Urbana, these volumes and papers form the surviving records of the surveys made under the direction of Colonel Richard C. Anderson, Surveyor from 1787 to his death in 1826, his son-in-law, Allan Latham, and his son, William Marshall Anderson, with the latest date 1839. The office was located in Louisville, Kentucky, until Latham moved it to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1829.

From the guide to the Virginia Military District in Ohio Papers, 1787-1839, (Western Reserve Historical Society)