Volume 43- No. 08
February 23, 2012
by lyle e davis
I’ve heard it said that we are all born equal. I guess that’s true. But what becomes of us after we are born? That is hard to predict. Some of us will grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and maybe, Indian Chiefs. Unfortuantely, some of us will grow up to be terrible people. No one knew when William T. Anderson was born back around 1838-1839 back in Hopkins County, Kentucky, just what he’d wind up being in life. Had they known, they might have thrown him out with the umbilical cord. What he grew up to be was a butcher; and not the kind you find in a meat market. William Anderson was a tall, bearded man with piercing eyes often described as burning coals. He came from a family of horse thieves, dressed with panache, and when the Civil War started, he joined the secessionists. Given the nickname "Bloody Bill," Anderson would charge into battle heedless of odds, showing no quarter and torturing prisoners by cutting off their ears. His parents were William C. Anderson and Martha Anderson. Anderson, often referred to as Bill, was one of six children. He was recalled as a well-behaved child by those who knew him. Soon after Anderson was born, his family moved to Palmyra, Missouri. There his grandfather, and possibly his father, worked as a hatter. By the mid-1840s, the Anderson family had moved to Iowa Territory. They soon relocated to Randolph County, Missouri. In Missouri, The Paper - 760.747.7119
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William C. Anderson found employment working on a farm and was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His family soon became well thought of by the local community. Later, they moved to Kans. They traveled to Bluff Creek
near Council Grove. At that time, there was significant debate about slavery in Kansas and many residents of the Northern United States were moving there in hopes of preventing it from becoming a slave state. Mutual dis-
trust and animosity soon developed between immigrants to Kansas from the North and those from the South. Though the Anderson family did not own slaves, they supported the status of blacks as slaves. Some histori-
“Bloody Bill” Anderson Continued on Page 2