~Page 1234~

VINCENT ANDERSON

The name of Vincent Anderson should certainly be included in the history of Fayette county owing to his long life of noble service to his family and the general public. His birth occurred in 1828 in Miami county, Ohio, and he was the son of Vincent and Mary (Mattics) Anderson, natives of Virginia and early settlers in Miami county, Ohio, having settled there about 1812 or 1815, locating on a farm of over one hundred acres on which they spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of eight children, Vincent, of this review, being the youngest in order of birth.  He lived at home until he reached maturity and received his education in the district schools.  In 1852 he moved to Fayette county, Iowa, where he remained but a short time when he and his brother came to Eldorado and established the first grist and saw-mill ever run there.  In May, 1855, they returned to Eldorado to make their home there, and there Vincent and his brother James, who had come to Eldorado previously, continued in the milling business. Solomon Helmer, an uncle of Mrs. Vincent Anderson, came to Fayette county about 1855, and was associated with Mr. Anderson in the mill, and he remained in this county until his death. In 1856 Vincent Anderson traded the mill for the farm of two hundred acres and the Bloomerton saw-mill, southeast of Eldorado, and here he remained, with the exception of two years, until his death, on January 4, 1905, having been very successful as a general farmer and a hog and cattle raiser.

Mr. Anderson was married on July 21, 1853, to Hannah Bell, who was born in Clark county, Ohio, and who was the daughter of Thomas and Minerva (Helmer) Bell, who remained in Ohio until shortly before their deaths, finally moving to Indiana, where they died.  They were early settlers in Clark county, Ohio, having moved there from Virginia about 1815. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Anderson enlisted as a soldier in the war of 1812, toward the close of the conflict.  Mrs. Anderson's father was a cousin of the Mr. Bell that once made the race for President of the United States.  Mr. Anderson also had a cousin who was at Fort Sumter when it was under siege. Mrs. Anderson's paternal grandfather brought a colored boy and girl with them when they came to Ohio from Virginia: another cousin of Mrs. Anderson was a color-bearer in the Civil war.

To Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Anderson five children were born, namely: Lincoln died in infancy: William Arthur is living near the old home in Fayette county; his sketch appears on another page of this work.  John Wesley was drowned in the Columbia river when twenty-one years of age.  Vincent Grant lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Robinson G. was once county attorney of Fayette county, Iowa, and he is now professor of law at a college in North Carolina.

Mrs. Vincent Anderson has always been a Baptist, and she is popular with a large circle of friends owing to her many admirable traits of character.

~transcribed by Cheryl Walker/CMD for Fayette County IAGenWeb