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CYRUS H. ANDERSON, M. D., is superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Chester, Illinois, and has been in charge of that institution since September 20, 1907. Prior to his incumbency of this office he was engaged in the active practice of medicine at MeLeansboro, Illinois, near which city his birth occurred on the 15th of September, 1869. The Anderson family was established in Hamilton county during its pioneer history by Edmond Anderson, a Kentucky settler, in whose residence the first session of court in this district was held. The senior Anderson was a modest farmer, and first in order of birth of his seven children was John T., father of the subject of this review.
Major John T. Anderson was born in Hamilton county, Illinois, in the year 1836, and he passed his life as a farmer, stockman and dealer in real estate, his death having occurred June 18, 1911. His eagerness to defend the Union at the opening of the rebellion caused his enlistment under the starry banner and in time he became major of the Eighty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. His command formed a part of General Grant's army for the campaign against the Confederates along the Mississippi river and he took part in the movements leading
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up to the capture of Vicksburg. He was in many of the well known battles preliminary to the siege of the city and after its fall he served with the army of General Banks along the Red River in the latter's Arkansas engagements. Major Anderson had acquired a liberal knowledge of mathematics as a school boy and this learning later enabled him to perform the duties of county surveyor, to which office he was elected as a Republican some time after the close of the war. He became a leader in county politics and was chairman of the Republican county central committee on various occasions. His keen interest and activity in politics gave him an acquaintanceship with prominent state leaders. His fraternal affiliations were confined to the Odd Fellows and his church connections were with the Presbyterian church at McLeansboro, in which he was an elder. He married Martha E. Patrick, a daughter of Rev. Hillary Patrick, one of the few classical scholars in the ministry of his day. Mrs. Anderson was born in Indiana in 1834, and she and her husband reared five children, of whom two survive in 1912, namely, _Dr. Cyrus H., of this notice; and Harry, a prominent lawyer at McLeansboro, Illinois.
Dr. Anderson attended the Southern Illinois College, at Enfield, for the completion of his literary education. He prepared himself for teaching while a student in the public schools and was engaged in pedagogic work for a few years prior to his matriculation in college. He finished the scientific course in his alma mater in 1890 and was graduated in the classical course in 1892. For one year thereafter he was engaged as professor of physics in the Southern Illinois College and subsequently he was elected superintendent of the Ridgeway, Illinois, schools, serving in the latter capacity for a period of two years. Having decided upon the medical profession as his life work, he became a student in the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, and was graduated in that excellent institution as a member of the class of 1898, duly receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He initiated the active practice of his profession at McLeansboro, where he built up a large and lucrative practice and where he continued to reside until September, 1907, at which time he came to Chester as the successor of Dr, W. E. Songer, former superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane. In 1910 Dr. Anderson was elected professor of cerebral surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at St. Louis, and he delivered lectures there during the college year. He holds membership in the Randolph County Medical Society and in the American Medical Association.
In his political convictions Dr. Anderson is a stanch Republican and he has served as chairman of the Hamilton county Republican central conunittee and has attended both congressional and state conventions as a delegate. While a resident of McLeansboro he was a member of the board of education. He has ever manifested a deep and sincere interest in all matters affecting the welfare of his home community and of the state at large and is a liberal contributor to all measures forwarded for progress and improvement.
On the 18th of August, 1893, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Anderson to Miss Mary E. Williams, the ceremony having been performed at Norris City, Illinois. Mrs. Anderson is a daughter of Rev. G. W. Williams, an old settler in the vicinity of Walpole, Illinois. She received a college education in her youth and for a number of years prior to her marriage was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools at McLeansboro. She was also a teacher of instrumental music. Dr. and Mrs. Anderson are the parents of three children,_Ruth, born in 1898; and Winfield and Anna, twins, born in 1900.