Chapman L. Anderson Explained

State1:Mississippi
District1:4th
Term Start1:March 4, 1887
Term End1:March 3, 1891
Preceded1:Otho R. Singleton
Succeeded1:Joseph H. Beeman
Office2:Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
Birth Date:15 March 1845
Rank: Second lieutenant
Unit: 39th Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Battles:American Civil War
Party:Democratic
Birth Place:Noxubee County, Mississippi. U.S.
Termstart2:January 1880
Termend2:January 1882

Chapman Levy Anderson (March 15, 1845 – April 27, 1924) was an American lawyer and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi, serving two terms from 1887 to 1891. A Confederate Army veteran, he was a member of the Democratic Party.

Biography

Anderson was born near Macon, Mississippi, on March 15, 1845. He was the son of Thomas Salmond Anderson (born 1819) and his wife, Flora E. (Levy) Anderson (born 1823).[1] He was related to Chapman Levy. Chapman Anderson's eldest brother, Edward Henry Anderson, served in the Confederate Army and died at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861.

Anderson attended the common schools in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate States Army on March 5, 1862, as a private in the Thirty-ninth Regiment, Mississippi Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted through the successive grades of noncommissioned officer until July 1864, when he was transferred to Bradford's cavalry corps of scouts with the rank of second lieutenant, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. In January 1866, he entered the University of Mississippi, and studied a partial course in law and literature until the summer of 1867.[2] He was then admitted to the bar on February 14, 1868.

He commenced practice in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He served as mayor of Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1875. He served as member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1879 and 1880.

Congress

Anderson was elected as a Democrat to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1891). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1890.

Anderson's Republican opponent, Marsh Cook,[3] contested the election results. Cook was ambushed and murdered by a gang of white supremacists in 1890 while campaigning to be a delegate at Mississippi's 1890 Constitutional Convention.

Later career and death

He served as United States district attorney for the northern district of Mississippi in 1896 and 1897.

He worked at his law office in Kosciusko, Mississippi, until his death, April 27, 1924. He was interred in Kosciusko Cemetery.

Personal life

Anderson was an Episcopalian. He married Nancy Cunningham Johnson of Kirkwood, Madison County, Mississippi, on December 22, 1870. He had three children: Jenny Flora; Chapman Levy, who died on September 25, 1883; and Mary Ellen, who married lawyer James E. Teat on June 22, 1904.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Rowland, Dunbar . Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form . 1907 . Southern Historical Publishing Association . 978-0-87152-222-1 . 31-32 . en.
  2. Book: Congress, United States . A Biographical Congressional Directory, 1774-1903 . 1903 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 362 . en.
  3. Web site: United States Congressional Serial Set. February 5, 1891. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.