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Anderson, William B

farmer, general, congressman, was born April 2, 1830, in Mount Vernon, Ill. He received a common school education; was elected surveyor of Jefferson county in 1851; studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1858, but never practiced, engaging in agricultural pursuits, and is by occupation a farmer. He was elected a member of the state house of representatives of Illinois in 1856, and again in 1858; entered the union army in 1861 as private, was successively elected captain, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel, and was brevetted brigadier-general. He was a presidential elector on the Seymour and Blair ticket in 1868; was elected a member of the constitutional convention of Illinois in 1869; was elected to the state senate of Illinois Nov. 5, 1871, to fill a vacancy; and was elected to the forty-fourth congress as an independent reformer. a