WILLIAM M. ANDERSON

Surnames: ANDERSON, McCOWAN, FARMER, BLACKWELL, CLARK, WEATHERS, GARDNER, WAITS, GRISHAM, MARSHALL, JACKSON

William M. Anderson, b October 31, 1846 in Kentucky, d July 14, 1919 at Durango, Falls County, Texas and buried in Blevins Cemetery--was a son of John Anderson, b 1820 in Kentucky, d November 15, 1880 in Falls County, and also buried in Blevins Cemetery. In 1869, in Hunt County, Texas, William M. Anderson was married to Jimima Farmer, b March 11, 1851 in Red River County, Texas, d March 12, 1945 at Durango and buried in Blevins Cemetery--a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (McCowan) Farmer, of Alabama.

In 1873, in a covered wagon drawn by three mules and one horse, William and Jimima with two children, came to Durango where her brother Thomas C. Farmer, and the Warren Blackwell family (her sister's family), had settled. Here, they exchanged the mules and horse for 28 acres of timber land along Deer Creek. The Anderson family first only had 3 walls, it would be warmed and meals cooked by a fire on the open side.  He was a freighter and when away several fierce dogs were the guards.  In this for ten months, during which time, William cut timber, grubbed stumps, and planted some corn and cotton on the land which was formerly owned by Joseph Marcus Jackson. He used brush fences, before barbed wire fences were used.

William finally finished building their home, and in six years, he had saved enough money to buy a sewing machine, and the family was able to have biscuits on Sunday, instead of cornbread every meal everyday.

In 1878, a hail storm in May wiped out the corn, cotton, and oats; and in 1887, there was a drought. William had to move his stock to a branch near Cego, where they camped for two months on the Charles Clark place.

Jimima spun her wool thread for knitting sock and stockings--dying the thread with copperas or pecan bark. At first, the children attended school in a neighbors house; then the men built a brush arbor adjoining the house, for the warm weather classes. They were eight pupils who used wooden boxes for desks. Later, the children rode five miles in a cart to the Durango school, carrying their lunches and food for the horse. In 1899, William served as a Falls County Commissioner.

On May the 30th, 1892, a tornado ripped through Durango, killing Jimima's eleven year old niece, Bessie--daughter of Thomas C. and Mary Louise Farmer, and also killing Mr. and Mrs. Tom Weathers and their two children.

William M. and Jimima (Farmer) Anderson had eleven children.

John Thomas Anderson, b July 6, 1870 in Hunt County, Texas, d August 27, 1897 and buried in Blevins Cemetery--married Maude Gwyn on August 27, 1893. 

Mary Rado Anderson, b October 13, 1873, d June 1, 1947--married Arthur June Gardner on August 4, 1897, b January 13, 1872, d June 14, 1944 at Durango, and both are buried in Union Cemetery.

George Edgar Anderson, b February 29, 1876 in Durango, d January 5, 1895, and buried in Blevins Cemetery.   

Ora Jane Anderson, b April 13, 1879 in Durango, d February 8, 1930 and buried in Union Cemetery—married Steve Mirick in December 1896.

Cora Ell Anderson, b May 8, 1881 in Durango, d November 5, 1917 and buried in an unmarked grave in Union Cemetery—married John Jordan in 1898.

Charles Fletcher Anderson, b November 16, 1883 in Durango, d December 30, 1949 and buried January 3, 1950 in Officers section Ft. Sam Houston Nat’l Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas—married Cora Woodland on March 21, 1909.

Infant daughter Anderson, b May 20, 1885, d May 24, 1885 and buried in Blevins Cemetery.

Harriet Lee Anderson (called "Hattie"), b September 30, 1887 d December 14, 1963--married Joseph Marcus Jackson Waits November 17, 1904, b January 4, 1882, d May 6, 1936 in Durango and both are buried in Union Cemetery.

Gillis Calvin Anderson, b February 7, 1890, d June 6, 1968 and buried in Clover Hill Cemetery in Lott, Texas--married Lucy E. Grisham on September 28, 1913, b April 29, 1891, d November 17, 1966 and buried in Clover Hill Cemetery.

Lois B. Anderson, b November 25, 1892, d March 19, 1971 and buried in Palestine, Texas, married Richard Spencer Marshall of Marlin, Texas on March 29, 1913.

Infant Anderson, no DOB, buried in Blevins Cemetery.

"Aunt" Jimima Anderson--as she was known in Durango--lived through the hardships and crisis of a true pioneer woman, but she never lost her Christian faith and her service in the Methodist Church, where she taught a primary Sunday School Class until she could not see or hear very well. Her long life spanned ninety-seven years.


Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart for printing the biographies of these Falls County Families to this Web page.
"Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 9, Column 2,and page 10 column 1.  (Children names, number of and b & d dates updated by Winfrey Dean Waits, July 2016)