Joseph Anderson

Joseph Anderson, son of John and Hannah (Davis) Anderson, was born in Butler county, O.. March 18, 1827, to which state his father removed from his native Pennsylvania. About 1821 John married Miss Davis, of Ohio, and for the ten following years made his home there. The family moved to Tazewell county, Ill., in 1831, and there were known among the leading farmers until 1851, when John Anderson retired, selling the farm. Sixteen years later Mr. Anderson, Sr., died in Indiana in his eighty-second year; his widow residing with the children until her death, in 1880, at her son's home in her eighty-third year. Of their thirteen children seven are living. Joseph Anderson, the fifth child in order of seniority, resided with his parents on the farm until twenty-one years of age. At this time he married Miss Susanna McGinness, of Peoria county, remained two years in Tazewell county, then moved to the farm in Peoria county, where for twenty-five years they made their home, prior to their removal to Stark county. Here he built a modern residence for his home and an elevator for the grain trade which he established, together with other buildings, accomplishing as much to build up Stark village as any other one man. Politically he is Republican, in society matters, holds a high place in Odd Fellows circles. His wife is a member of the Congregational church and prominent wherever woman's work is called for. Of their eleven children, George W. is deceased; James W., conductor on C. I. E. R.; Mary J., in Kansas ; Frank M., in Stark ; Sarah E., deceased; John H., engineer at Rock Island; Lewis W., Robert C, and Ulyssus L., in Iowa; Nathan A., here; and Edward E., deceased. U. L. Anderson is yard-master of the Central Iowa Railroad at Keithsburg, Ill. Mr. Anderson is now about sixty years old. He was an infant pioneer of Ohio and came to the military tract of Illinois while it was a wilderness, so that in two states he has passed through the pioneer period, and appears today to be a man of forty rather than sixty summers. Idleness has not brought him this look of youth, for in every part he has taken, whether on the farm, in the grain warehouse, or lumber yard, he has always been a worker. With Mrs. Anderson his home at Stark is a model one.