Biography - Enoch Anderson
ENOCH P. ANDERSON was born in Massac County, Ill., April 21, 1834. He is a son of Thomas F. and Mihelia (Logan) Anderson, both natives of Tennessee. The parents of Thomas F. were Enoch and Elizabeth Anderson, natives of North Carolina. Thomas F. Anderson was a farmer, who came to Illinois at an early day, and purchased Government land in Massac County. The trip was by wagon, and after a delay of some time, caused by the sickness of the father of the family, they at length crossed the Ohio River at Paducah, settled in Massac County, and lived there until his death, which occurred March 30, 1839.
Enoch P. Anderson remained at home until he was seventeen years of age, assisting in the care of the family, on account of which he received but little education. He began life for himself by working out by the month, and afterward went into the poultry business. New Orleans was his main market, and when he had collected together a big lot of poultry, he shipped them down the river, going with the boat himself, and doing his own selling. He remained thus engaged about three years, and then bought Government land in Massac County, a tract of forty acres in township 14, range 5, east. This he afterward sold, and took up forty acres in the same township, to which he added other tracts from time to time, until finally he had one hundred and sixty acres, upon which he lived until 1860, when he sold out.
Our subject then rented land about four years, then trading for an eighty-acre tract, on which he lived until 1874, when he traded for land in lower Massac County, in township 14, upon which he resided until his death, in 1891. He then sold this farm with the exception of eighty acres, which he owns, in township 14, range 5, and bought one hundred and forty acres on section 33, township 13, in Johnson County, where he lives, and follows farming and stock-raising. He makes a specialty of running horses, of which he has some fine specimens. He was married January 28, 1855, to Prudence A. Wilkins, who was born August 30, 1836, in Indiana, and died November 20, 1876. He was married next to Louisa Thompson, April 27, 1879. She was born in Illinois, and died April 15, 1886. He was married the third time, to Matilda E. Myrick, August 30, 1887. She was born in Kentucky, March 8, 1864, her father being a native of Tennessee, and her mother of Kentucky. Mr. Anderson has eight children living, viz: Martha E., Joshua T., Nancy J., Joseph, William and Isham by the first wife, Sidda, by his second, and Botell, by his third. He enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, in 1862, at Metropolis, was First Lieutenant of the company, and has not yet been discharged. He is liberal in his religious views, and is a member of the Democratic party.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 525-526.
