Anderson Family, 1810-1848

Historical Note

The Anderson family - descendants of Colonel Richard Clough Anderson, a revolutionary officer and surveyor general of the Virginia Military District, was one of the most prominent families of Ohio and Kentucky.

During the Revolutionary War, Richard Clough Anderson took part in the battles of Assunpink Bridge, Brandywine, Germantown, and Savannah, and as aide-de-camp to General Lafayette, Anderson attended to the surrender of Cornwallis. On Dec. 17, 1783, the Society of Cincinnati appointed Richard Clough Anderson surveyor general in Virginia Military District, (the land between Scioto and Little Miami rivers), which had been granted to Virginia by Congress in 1784 to be distributed as wartime to Virginia soldiers. Richard C. Anderson's first wife, Elizabeth, was the sister of Generals George Rogers and William Clark. Their son, Richard Clough, Jr. (1788-1826) (q.v.) graduated from William and Mary, became a representative in the Kentucky legislature from 1815 to 1817, a member of Congress from 1817 to 1821, speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1822, and from 1823 to 1826 minister to Colombia, where he negotiated the first treaty between the United States and a South American country. He died of yellow fever to Cartagena en route to the Congress of Panama of 1826. In 1795, Richard Clough Anderson married Sarah Marshall, first cousin of Chief Justice John Marshall and a relative of the Clarks. They had seven sons and five daughters some of whom played an important role in state and national political and cultural life.

Larz Anderson (1803-1878) graduated from Harvard Law School and moved to Cincinnati when he married into the family of Nicholas Longworth, noted horticulturist of Cincinnati, and became one of the wealthiest men in the state, Director of the Citizens' National Bank, known for involvement in various charities. Larz Anderson committed suicide in June 1878, while visiting his brother Dr. Joseph L. Anderson of Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Robert Anderson (1805-1871) graduated from West Point in 1825, and was appointed second lieutenant in the 3 rd artillery. He served in the Black Hawk war of 1832 as colonel of the Illinois volunteers. In 1835-1837 he was instructor of artillery at West Point, and in 1837-38 served in the Florida war, and was brevetted captain. Subsequently, he was attached to the staff of Winfield Scott as assistant adjutant-general, and was promoted to captain in 1841. He served in the Mexican War, and was severely wounded at Molino del Rey. In 1857 he was appointed major of the 1 st artillery, and on 20 Nov. 1860, he assumed command of the troops in Charlestown harbor, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. Owning to threatened assaults, he withdrew his command, on the night of 26 Dec. to Fort Sumter, and on April 13 surrendered the fort. In recognition of his services, he was appointed brigadier-general in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the command of the department of Kentucky, and subsequently to that of the Cumberland. He was relieved from the duty due to his failing health, and in October 1863 retired from active service. He died in Nice, France in 1871. He was one of the principal founders of the Soldiers' Home in Washington.

Charles Anderson (1814-1895), graduated at Miami University Oxford, Ohio (1833), practiced law in Louisville, Ky., and in 1835 moved to Dayton, Oh. In 1844 he was elected to the Ohio senate, where his efforts in behalf of the repeal of the Black Laws made him unpopular with his constituency. He then made a tour in Europe and returning opened his law office in Cincinnati with Rufus King. In 1859 he settled in Texas, and at the outbreak of the rebellion was driven out the state for his unionism, and narrowly escaped with his life. He returned to Ohio and was made colonel of the 93th Ohio Volunteer infantry, and was severely wounded at the battle of Stone River. In he was governor of Ohio. He moved from Ohio to Kentucky in 1887 and purchased property in Kuttawa, Ky.

William Marshall Anderson (1807-1880) studied at Chillicothe Academy and Transylvania Academy in Lexington, Ky. In October 1826, following death of his father, he returned home and was appointed executor of the estate. For the next three years he was involved in the management of the farm. Having sold the farm, W. Marshall Anderson studied law in the office of his brother Larz in Louisville. In May 1832, he received his law license. Having been stricken with yellow fever, he decided to take a trip West in order to improve his health, and joined the fur-trading party being taken to the Rocky Mountains by the Kentucky-born William L. Sublette. His health restored, Anderson returned home in the fall of 1834. In 1839, he replaced his brother-in-law Allen Latham as the permanent Surveyor General of the Virginia Military Land District in Ohio. In May 1839, Governor McArthur died leaving a will that resulted in one of the most notorious lawsuits in U.S. history. As McArthur's last attorney, Anderson became involved in the intricate litigation. In 1839, Anderson bought a small place near Chillicothe called Glen Mary. In 1853 Anderson moved from Chillicothe to Circleville, Ohio and settled at Seven Oaks Farm in Pickaway County. In 1865-1866 he traveled to Mexico, in order to establish a Confederate colony. William Marshall Anderson died of double pneumonia in Circleville in 1881.

W. Marshall Anderson converted to Catholicism in 1839, after years of intense study. He and his brothers were involved in the affairs of the Cincinnati Archdiocese. In the early 1850's Anderson became involved in a vitriolic controversy over the visit of the anti-Catholic Hungarian revolutionary Louis Kossuth. In 1870's, W. Marshall Anderson, a zealous Catholic, found himself in confrontation with his sons and sister Louisa, who resented his heavy-handed attempts to interfere with their religious beliefs.

In 1840's W. Marshall Anderson became interested in archeology and arts, and in June 1844, Anderson was appointed secretary of the American Art Union for the promotion of the Fine Arts in the United States. In 1871, he visited the Lake George area to study mound builders. He succeeded in uncovering a valuable collection of pottery.

W. Marshall Anderson was married twice. His first wife, Eliza McArthur Anderson, daughter of Duncan McArthur died in 855. Their son, Thomas McArthur Anderson (1836-1917), abandoned the bar in 1861 to enlist as a Private in 65 th Ohio Volunteers. Through the influence of his uncle, Robert Anderson, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the 5 th US Cavalry. He was soon promoted to Captain, and served through the Civil War with the 12 th US infantry, being twice wounded and twice brevetted to Major for conduct in Wilderness and Lieutenant and to Lieutenant Colonel for Spotsylvania Court House. After the war he remained in the Army, rising to Colonel, commanding the 14th Infantry. In 1898, with the temporary rank of Brigadier General, he commanded the first troops to reach the Philippines after George Dewey's victory in Manila Bay. Mary Anderson (b. 1846) married Judge Joseph Olds of Cincinatti.

In 1857, W. Marshall Anderson married Ellen Columba Ryan, a daughter of a wealthy Irish Catholic family of Urbana, Ohio. Their son, Robert Marshall Anderson (1862-1939) graduated from Notre Dame University in 1883. An expert civil engineer, he taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. and served as vice-president of a New York engineering company. In 1831, he retired and moved to Circleville, Ohio. He inherited the his father's archeological and manuscript collections. The archeological collection was curated by Mrs. A.R. Van Cleaf, and then loaned to the Department of Archeology of Ohio State University. In 1938 he, in cooperation Robert Spurrier Ellison, Oklahoma oil producer and collector of Western Americana, attempted to publish the Rocky Mountain journals. With Ellison's death, however, this project was brought to an end.

From the guide to the Anderson Family papers, 1810-1848, (The Huntington Library)