Corder, Anderson P.

Born: 1810-XX-XX Kentucky

Died: 1891-12-27 Mendocino County, California

Flourished: Williamson County, Illinois

Anderson P. Corder was a soldier, lawyer, schoolteacher, and state legislator. Corder settled in Franklin County, Illinois, where he taught school. Upon commencement of the Black Hawk War, he served as second sergeant in Captain William J. Stephenson’s company of mounted volunteers. After mustering out of the militia, Corder returned to Franklin County and teaching. In September 1836, he married Lavina (Serena) Adams. In 1839, Corder and his family moved to Marion, Illinois, where Corder practiced law and taught school. In 1843, Williamson County voters elected him county clerk, a position he held until 1848. Upon commencement of the Mexican War, Corder enlisted as a private in Company B of the Second Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. In February 1847, soldiers in his company elected him captain. Returning to Williamson County after the war, Corder practiced law and entered politics. In 1850, he owned real property valued at $100. In 1852, Williamson County voters elected Corder to the Illinois Senate, where he served from 1853 to 1855. Corder subsequently moved to Jackson County, Illinois, where, in 1860, he was practicing law and owned real property valued at $150. Politically, Corder was a Democrat. He was an outspoken critic of the Civil War, imprisoned by federal officers in the Old Capitol Prison in 1862 for making speeches sympathetic to the Confederate States of America.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Franklin County, 22 September 1836, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Milo Erwin, History of Williamson County Illinois (Marion, IL: n.p., 1876), 232, 242, 247, 248, 272-73; 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), 1:292; Wm. Hugh Robarts, Mexican War Veterans: A Complete Roster of the Regular and Volunteer Troops in the War Between the United States and Mexico, from 1846 to 1848 (Washington, DC: Brentano’s, 1887), 44; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 218, 220; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Williamson County, IL, 395; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Williamson County, IL, 283; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Jackson County, IL, 185; Gravestone, Ukiah Cemetery, Ukiah, CA.