JAMES ANDERSON

Sacramento County

Biographies

JAMES ANDERSON

JAMES ANDERSON, deceased. The subject of this sketch was born in Pettis County, Missouri, July 28, 1828, his parents being William and Margaret (Davis) Anderson, both deceased in Missouri. James was brought up on his father’s farm until he was eighteen, and received the usual district-school education of the period. Fifty years ago in Missouri it was not very broad or deep, and was limited to a few months in the year, but it laid the necessary foundation. In after life Mr. Anderson was fond of reading, and kept well posted in matters of public interest, and evinced superior talents, especially in mathematics. His first position after leaving home was at a Government station among the Omahas and Pawnees, where he spent a year or two. Soon after his return to his home he set out for California, across the plains, arriving in Sacramento in September, 1849. He then went to mining on Feather River for about one year, and was fairly successful, often making $100 a day. He accumulated several thousand dollars, but his health and that of his two comrades had been impaired by bad water and poor fare on the overland trip, and Mr. Anderson found himself unfit for the rough life of a miner. Returning to the plains he traded in cattle for a time, and in the spring of 1851 he settled on the River Road, about eighteen miles below Sacramento, where he bought a ranch. Preferring general farming, stock-raising and dairying, he bought in January, 1855, the upland ranch of 880 acres occupied by his family, two or three miles farther from the river, and in 1856 he sold his river ranch. Mr. Anderson was married, February 15, 1855, to Miss B. E. Dillon, born in Illinois in 1833, daughter of Laban and Jane (Holaday) Dillon, both now deceased. Mrs. Anderson’s grandparents on both sides lived to a good old age. The Holadays were Quakers. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson became the parents of five children: Margaret Jane, born November 14, 1855; Sarah Eliza, February 7, 1857; James William, September 4, 1858; Ida Ellen, June 23, 1860; George Buckner, February 7, 1862. All the children have had the advantage of a good education, and are all fond of reading and self-improvement. Sarah Eliza was married November 10, 1880, at the home of her parents, to Fred F. Thompson, of Sacramento. They are the parents of four children: Eva, born in 1881; Edith, in 1882; Roxy, in 1884; Fred. F., Jr., in 1889. The subject of this sketch was a school trustee almost continuously for twenty years or more before his death, which occurred March 25, 1880, in San Francisco, where he had gone for medical treatment. His health had been poor for a year, and for that last six months of his life he was quite feeble. He had no hope of recovery, and concluded to come home to die in the bosom of his family, but was taken off on the very eve of his return. His remains were brought home and buried in Franklin amid the regrets of the whole community, by whom he was universally regarded as a very estimable man in all the relations of life, an excellent neighbor and upright citizen, straightforward and eminently reliable, honorable and kindly to everybody. Possessed of an admirable character and gentle disposition, he went through life without making an enemy, leaving to his bereaved wife and children a legacy more precious than gold.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 708-709. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.