William Stadden Anderson, probate judge of Dickinson county and an honored veteran of the Union service in the great Civil war, was born on a farm in La Salle county, Illinois, Feb. 17, 1842, the only son of William F. and Anna (Stadden) Anderson. The father was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1807, and his parents were native Virginians. The mother was born in Licking county, Ohio, March 19, 1808, and her father was born in Pennsylvania and her mother in Maryland. William F. Anderson as a farmer by occupation and died in La Salle county, Ill., Feb. 1, 1846, on the farm where he had settled in 1835, and his wife died in the same county, Oct. 10, 1898. Of the union of this honored couple were born six children: Samantha, born in 1830, is the widow of J. P. Browning and resides in Henry county, Illinois; Catherine Elizabeth, born in 1833, was married in 1853 to Nelson Conard, who died in 1864, and in 1878 she married William Gray, who died in 1896, and in 1904 she married George W. Anderson, who died in January, 1911, and she now resides at Bozeman, Mont.; Amanda, born in 1835, was married to T. J. McHenry in August, 1860, and she died in 1894; Mary Jane, born in 1839, was married in 1856 to John F. Gibson, who died in 1905, and she now lives in Denton, Tex.; William S. is the next in order of birth; Lucy Ann, born March 24, 1845, is the wife of J. D. Lawrence, married in 1866, and resides at Thawville, Ill.

Mr. Anderson's opportunities to acquire an education were somewhat limited, but he improved them in the public schools of his native county, and at Rock River Seminary, at Mt. Morris, Ill. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company G of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Illinois infantry, for service in the Civil war, and was promoted to the rank of corporal. This regiment left Camp Hancock, near Camp Douglas, Nov. 6, 1862, when it was ordered to Memphis, Tenn., to report to General Sherman. On its arrival there it went into camp and remained till it joined the movement known as the "Tallahatchie Expedition." It participated in the battle of Chickasaw Bluffs and went from there to Arkansas Post. It arrived in the rear of Vicksburg on the evening of May 18, 1863, and participated in the assaults of the 19th and 22nd, in which Mr. Anderson was seriously wounded in the right shoulder. As a result of this wound he was discharged on account of total disability, at St. Louis, Dec. 1, 1863, and returned to his old home, to begin, like many another soldier, in a crippled condition, to carve out his career. In 1865 he removed to Chillicothe, Mo., where he engaged in the real estate business six years, and in 1871 came to Kansas and settled on a homestead in Dickinson county, twelve miles south of Abilene. He made the final proof on this homestead in 1876. After coming to Kansas he taught school two years and in 1873 was elected county surveyor, being reëlected four times and filling that position for a period of ten years. He then retired from the farm on account of his wound received in the war and removed to Abilene. In 1888 he was elected clerk of the district court and held that position two years, being defeated for reëlection in 1890, by the Populists. He then engaged in the ice and coal business in Abilene, with which industry he was connected twelve years. In 1908 he was nominated and elected to the position of probate judge of Dickinson county, was renominated and reëlected in 1910, and is now serving his second term in that position, being a very popular official. Judge Anderson is a Republican in his political convictions, and has been a member of Abilene Post No. 63, Grand Army of the Republic, since it was organized, in 1882. He was the commander of the Post in 1887 and has filled all the other offices at different times. He was a member of the state council of administration, Grand Army of the Republic, in 1908, and is now chaplain of Abilene Post. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he was treasurer of the Abilene school board six years.

Judge Anderson was married, Dec. 13, 1866, to Miss Jennie B. Gibson, at Chillicothe, Mo. She is a daughter of John Gibson, a farmer and a native of Virginia, who died at Carrollton, Mo., in 1880. Of the union of Judge and Mrs. Anderson were born seven children: Jessie D., born Oct. 25, 1867, at Chillicothe, Mo., was married in 1891 to R. A. Baker, a farmer in Dickinson county. She died in Jan., 1901, and two children survive her. Elizabeth, born Oct. 25, 1869, is the widow of A. S. Hill, a lumberman at Tacoma, Wash., who died in 1903. Kate Gertrude, born Sept. 15, 1872, is the wife of J. E. Nickels, a merchant at Talmage, Kan. William Gibson, born July 30, 1874, was educated in the public schools of Abilene and at Baker University, Baldwin, Kan., graduating with the class of 1898. He then taught in the Dickinson County High School, at Chapman, after which he took up newspaper work at Las Vegas, N. M., where he was an editorial writer on a daily paper owned by two of his cousins. He is now editor and publisher of the "Daily News" at Arkansas City. He married Miss Katherine Underwood, of Clay Center, Kan., Nov. 20, 1900, his wife being a daughter of Rev. W. H. Underwood, a retired Methodist Episcopal minister of that place. Edna, born Nov. 5, 1876, is the wife of Horace Johnson, a sugar chemist in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. Fred L., born Dec. 24, 1880, died June 1, 1908, at Tacoma, Wash., and Anna, born June 8, 1886, died March 21, 1888.