Stephen Anderson, a prominent farmer and stockman of Walnut township, is a native of Ireland, and was born in County Armagh, in the town of Derryscollop, in 1846. He is a son of Thomas A. and Margaret (White) Anderson. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Jooseph,[sic] lives on the home place in Ireland; Elizabeth and Matilda, also living in Ireland; Stephen, the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Mary Ann Welford, Douglass, Kans.; Thomas resides with Stephen; Lydia resides with Stephen.

Mr. Anderson immigrated to America in 1865 and located in Canada, where he remained two years when he removed to Illinois. Two years later, he went to Arkansas where he remained five years and came to Butler county, Kansas, in 1874. He settled in Walnut township and filed on the claim which is his present home. He bought 160 acres more, adjoining on the south and now owns 320 acres, all prairie upland; and he has followed farming and stockraising, and his well-directed efforts have been rewarded by success. When he came to Kansas in 1874, he was practically without money, but he was ambitious and determined to succeed. His first work was shelling 500 bushels of corn by hand. He helped build the first bridge on Eight Mile creek in Douglass township. He broke a few acres of prairie in 1874, and built a dugout and a stable, even before he had any horses. The next year he bought a team for

$60.00, and rented some land of George Carey. He got a few cows, calves, mares and colts, and thus made his start in Butler county and built his house in 1882. He gradually raised more grain and cattle and today is one of the substantial and well-to-do men of the county. Some of his land is leased for oil and gas operations.

Mr. Anderson was married in 1876, to Miss Celia M. Lewis, of Walnut township. She died in 1883 and was buried in Douglass cemetery. Her father, Charles Lewis, came to Butler county in 1873, and died about 1909. Her mother died about 1875. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson: Mrs. Edith M. Rains, lives in Coddo county, near Fort Cobb, Okla., and Joe F. lives at home with his father.

The Andersons feed from two to three cars of cattle a year and a carload of hogs. In the early days Mr. Anderson traded mostly at Wichita, twenty-five miles away. He is an industrious and thrifty man and a good citizen and it[sic] a representative of that type of men who built up the great West.

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