James D. Anderson

James D. Anderson, a Civil War veteran who spent the latter years of his life in Leavenworth County, was a native of Illinois. He was born in Coles County, Illinois, November 19, 1846, and spent his early boyhood days on a farm. He was thus engaged when the Civil War broke out and in the summer of 1861 before he was fifteen years old when President Lincoln called for 500,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, young Anderson literally left his team in the field and walked to Matoon, Illinois, and enlisted. This was on August 7, 1861, and he was assigned to Company D, Forty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

He was discharged January 5, 1864, by reason of expiration of his term of enlistment and re- enlisted the same day in the same company on the battlefield near Bolivar, Tennessee. He was later transferred to Company K, Fifty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served as corporal with that command until he was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, on July 22, 1865, by general order of the War Department, on account of the close of the war. He participated in a number of the important engagements of the war and made a good military record.

After his discharge from the army, Mr. Anderson returned to Illinois, and for a time worked in a sawmill and was engaged in rafting logs down the Wabash River. About 1868, he removed from Terre Haute to Rockville, Indiana, where he worked in a cooper shop about a year. He then engaged in farming until 1877, when he went to Arkansas, where he was engaged in lumbering and rafting logs down the James River. In 1884 he went to western Kansas, where he was engaged in various pursuits, until he entered the National Military Home at Leavenworth, Kansas.

Here he died October 19, 1908, and his remains rest by the side of his comx*ades in Section 24, row 1, in the National Military Home Cemetery, at Leavenworth. James D. Anderson was married June 19, 1876, to Minerva Finnigan. She was born at Rockville, Indiana, December 19, 1859, a daughter of George and Nancy (Lambert) Finnigan, and was one of three children born to them, as follows : Albert, William and Minerva. George Finnigan was born at Steubenville, Ohio, about 1837, and died at the age of 73 years.

His wife was born at Logansport, Indiana, and lived to be about 73 years old. Mrs. Minerva (Finnigan) Anderson is now the wife of Edward Coyle. To James D. and Minerva (Finnigan) Anderson were born seven children, five of whom grew to maturity, as follows : Albert G., a representative of the Historical Publishing Company, of Topeka, Kansas ; Charles C, a switchman in the employ of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, Kansas City, Missouri ; Mrs. Beulah Hockel, Pana, Illinois ; Winona E., married George Wagoner, Amarillo, Texas ; and Frank, deceased. James D. Anderson was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics he was a staunch adherent to the policies and principles of the republican party.