The subject of this sketch is Eaton Anderson, an old resident of Elk township and one of the many prosperous farmers of that locality. Mr. Anderson was born on the Western Reserve, Portage county, Ohio, May 18, 1845. His paternal grandfather was of Scotch birth. He emigrated to America early in life and settled on the Reserve three miles south of Ravenna, and not many miles distant from Canton, the home of our late martyred President, William McKinley. The grandmother and aged wife survives, quietly waiting at the old homestead for the messenger that will summon her to join the husband of her youth.

Mr. Anderson is a son of James Anderson, who was born, reared and married in Pennsylvania. His mother, Sarah Eaton, was born in the same state. Her grandfather left England, his native land, and settled in Pennsylvania at an early day. Mr. Anderson's parents removed to Ohio and subsequently to Kosciusko county, Indiana, near the town of Warsaw, where they both passed away, his mother in 1856 and his father in 1873. Mr. Anderson and a sister, Mrs. Rebecca Romine, of Newton county, Indiana are the only surviving members of a family of twelve children.

Mr. Anderson was married in 1869 to Wilhelmina E. Hanolds, a daughter of Bowman Hanolds. Her paternal grandfather, who had followed the sea as a "jolly tar," emigrated to America and settled in Salem, New Jersey, where her father was born. Bowman Hanolds removed to Ohio and was married in that state and reared a family of nine children, but four of whom are living, three daughters and one son. The brother cast his lot and fortunes in Alamosa, a thriving little city in the San Luis valley of Colorado. He is a railroad man. There is one sister in Nebraska and one in Michigan. In 1874 Mr. and Mrs. Anderson removed to Colorado and resided for two and one-half years in Colorado Springs, while Mr. Anderson freighted through and over the mountain districts of the southern and western part of the state when the great railroad system that now intersects that region was unknown beyond Pueblo. In 1877 he removed to the San Luis valley and located four miles west of Monte Vista, where he operated a dairy very successfully, one year's output amounting to seven hundred and fifty poands of butter. Mrs. Anderson's health becoming impared by the high altitude of that country, they sold their interests there and started on an overland journey without any special destination in view. Uppermost in their thoughts was a desire to locate where their children would be accorded educational advantages. The fame of Kansas, her school privileges, the bulwark of independence, attracted their attention and September 7, 1881 found them located in Cloud county, a consummation they have never regretted, for continued prosperity has been their recompense.

Mr. Anderson's farm is the original homestead of Walter G. Reid, the present register of deeds of Cloud county. A small creek runs through his land, and the trees that grow along its banks impart a pleasing effect to the landscape. The little cottonwood house has been razed to the ground and supplanted by a comfortable seven room residence. The principal product of the farm is corn and Mr. Anderson has never had a total failure of that crop. In 1889 he had eighty acres that yielded five thousand and two hundred bushels. He raises cattle, hogs and horses. Of the latter he is pardonably proud of a span of four year old trotters of pure Hambletonian stock.

Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson: Maud, their first born, died when two years of age in the state of Michigan. Walter F., is a resident of North Dakota. Lulu Belle, is the wife of George C. Packard, who is connected with the Lumber, Milling and Mercantile Company, of Mansfield, Arkansas, an extensive concern. Grace Ellen, a sixteen-year-old daughter, is a student of district No. 96.

In politics Mr. Anderson is a stalwart Democrat. He has been a valued member of the school board of District No. 96, more commonly known as the "Boggs district," for twelve years. The family are members of the Clyde congregation of the Christain church, and among the most esteemed citizens of the community. Mr. Anderson is a broad-minded man, "with malice toward none and charity for all," a man of pleasing address and an interesting conversationalist. He has established for himself a good name which "is better than apples of gold and pictures of silver."