Anderson, Stinson H.

Born: 1800-04-21 Sumner County, TN

Died: 1857-09-XX Jefferson County, IL

Anderson was widely regarded as a large landowner and horse breeder. During the Black Hawk War, he served from June to July 1831 as a private in William Moore's company in the Odd Battalion of Mounted Volunteers. From May to August 1832, he served first as a private and later as staff sergeant major in James Bowman's company in the Odd Battalion of Spies. Upon returning home in 1832, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives where he served until 1835. In 1835, the Illinois General Assembly elected him warden of the state penitentiary at Alton, a job he held until his resignation in 1837 to become a captain in the U.S. Army's 2nd regiment of Dragoons. Based at Fort Call in Volusia, Florida and charged with removing Black Seminoles from Florida to Indian Territory, Anderson served with distinction until he mustered out in 1838. A strong Democrat, Anderson returned to Illinois and became lieutenant governor from 1838-42 under Governor Thomas Carlin. In 1845, President James K. Polk appointed him U.S. marshal for the Northern Illinois district. He held that position until 1849. He received a substantial military bounty land grant for his service during the Second Seminole War and was nominated for president of the Illinois State Agricultural Society in 1857.

Gravestone, Old Union Cemetery, Mount Vernon, IL; Newton Bateman, Paul Selby, and J. Seymour Currey, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Hancock County, ed. by Charles Scofield, (Chicago: Munsell, 1921), 1:17, 336, 612; 2:921; Thomas Ford, History of Illinois (Chicago: S. C. Griggs, 1854), 400-401; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 482; Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 19; Publications of the Illinois State Historical Library, 30 (1923), 14; Blue Book of the State of Illinois (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1921), 617-18; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 23, 190; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:286, 289n; Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society 3 (1857-58), 3; Theo. F. Rodenbough, From the Everglades to Cañon with the Second Dragoons (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1875), 19.