Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Anderson, Jefferson Randolph 1861 - living in 1913
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Author: William Harden
p. 681-684

   JEFFERSON RANDOLPH ANDERSON was born in Savannah, Georgia, September 4, 1861,
and has back of him an honorable and distinguished ancestry. He is the eldest of
five children. In the paternal line he is descended from Capt. George Anderson,
of England, who came to this country from Berwick on the Tweed, and was married
in Trinity church, New York, on February 16, 1671, to Doborah Grant of that
city, and settled in Savannah about the year 1763. Mr. Anderson's grandfather
was Mr. George Wayne Anderson, who was a nephew of Justice James M. Wayne of the
supreme court of the United States, and was for forty years prior to the Civil
war the president of the old Planters Bank in Savannah, one of the greatest of
the South's antebellum financial institutions. His father was Col. Edward
Clifford Anderson, Jr., who, at the bloody cavalry battle at Trevillians
Station, in Virginia, in 1864, succeeded to the colonelcy of the Seventh Georgia
Cavalry in the army of the Confederacy; and who fell a victim at the post of
duty in the yellow fever epidemic in Savannah in 1876.

   In the maternal line, Mr. Anderson is a lineal descendant of Thomas
Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of
American Independence, his mother, Jane Margaret Randolph, of Albemarle county,
Virginia, being a granddaughter of Col. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of
“Edgehill," in that county, and who himself was the eldest grandson of Mr.
Jefferson.

   Jefferson Randolph Anderson obtained his early education in various schools
in Savannah, Georgia, and was graduated from the Chatham county high school in
the class of 1877, and then entered the Hanover Academy of Hanover county,
Virginia, of which Col. Hilary P. Jones was the principal. He remained a student
there through two consecutive years, and in 1879 matriculated in the University
of Virginia, spending there the scholastic years of 1879-80 and 1880-81,
pursuing his studies in various branches in the academic department. He then
went abroad and enjoyed superior educational advantages in the University of
Gottingen in Germany, where for nearly two years he pursued the studies of
history, literature and Roman, or civil, law under the celebrated jurist,
Professor von Ehring. Returning to America in the summer of 1883, he again
entered the University of Virginia, taking during the session of 1883-84 a part
of the academic course and a part of the law course. He attended the summer law
school of Prof. John B. Minor during the summer of 1884 and during the following
session of 1884-85 took the remainder of the regular law course, being graduated
in June, 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Law.

   While at the university, Mr. Anderson was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega
fraternity, which he joined in 1879, and in 1883 he became a member of a student
social organization known as the Eli Banana, composed of the leading students in
the various Greek letter fraternities. He took active interest in all branches
of student life, and in the spring of 1884 was the "bow oar" on the 'varsity
crew. In June, 1884, he was elected by his fellow students to the position of
"Final President" of the Jefferson Literary Society, which at that time was
regarded, and perhaps still is regarded, as the highest honor which could be
conferred by the students of the university upon a fellow student.

   Mr. Anderson was admitted to the bar in Virginia and began practicing law in
Savannah, Georgia, in November, 1885, in the office of his relative, the late
Judge Walter S, Chisholm, one of the most distinguished lawyers in Georgia, who
at that time was the general counsel for the Plant System of Railways, the
Southern Express Company and many other large interests. In the summer of 1887
Mr. Anderson decided to branch out for himself, and as a preliminary step, took
a course in practical business training in the Eastman Business College at
Poughkeepsie, New York, and opened his law office in Savannah the following
October. In May, 1890, he entered the law firm of Charlton & Mackall as junior
partner, a partnership which the following year caused the firm style of
Charlton, Mackall & Anderson to be adopted and which was retained until the
retirement of the senior partner in June, 1900. This firm became in 1895 the
general counsel for the Georgia. & Alabama Railway and represented many large
corporate, as well as private, interests. The firm of Mackall & Anderson then
existed from July, 1900, until October, 1902, when it was dissolved and Mr.
Anderson continued for some years alone in the practice. In February, 1908, he
formed a co-partnership with Hon. George T. Cann, who resigned from the bench of
the eastern judicial circuit of Georgia for that purpose, and this firm under
the style of Anderson & Cann continued until January 1, 1911, when Hon. J.
Ferris Cann became a member and the firm name was changed to Anderson, Cann &
Cann. This firm is the division counsel for the portions in Georgia of the
fourth and fifth divisions of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and represents a
large and influential clientele, their practice being general, although largely
in the departments of corporation law and admiralty.

   Mr. Anderson participates actively in the business life of his city and
state. He is president of the Savannah & Statesboro Railway Company, whose
management and affairs he personally directs. He is also president of the
Georgia & Alabama Terminal Company, which owns the great export terminals used
by the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company at Savannah; and he is a director in
quite a number of business concerns, among others the Savannah Trust Company,
the Atlantic Compress Company, the Savannah Electric Company, the Savannah Union
Station Company, and the Chatham Real Estate & Improvement Company.

   In the field of politics, Mr. Anderson is well and favorably known throughout
the state. He represented his county in the legislature of 1905-06, and quickly
earned a state-wide reputation for ability, earnestness and fairness as a
legislator. He was re-elected for the session of 1909-10 and occupied the very
important position of vice-chairman of the committee on rules, the speaker being
exofficio the chairman. In politics, Mr. Anderson's chief interest seems to be
in the direction of advocating .conservatism in legislation and in matters
relating to the education and improvement of the youth of his state. In the
session of 1905, he was vice-chairman of the house committee, which created
eight new counties in Georgia. He energetically supported the measure creating a
juvenile reformatory and he was floor leader in the house for the movement which
enacted the first child labor law in Georgia. In 1906 he actively assisted in
the passage of the law which created the system of congressional agricultural
schools in Georgia and he has been since its establishment the chairman of the
board of trustees of the agricultural school for the first congressional
district of Georgia. He was also chairman of the commission appointed by the
state to erect in Savannah a monument to General Oglethorpe, the founder of the
original colony of Georgia, the monument being erected in 1910. In the house of
1909 he introduced measures providing for the extension and improvement of the
child labor law, for the appointment of a tax commission to revise and equalize
the system and methods of state taxation, and for biennial instead of annual
sessions of the legislature.

   Mr. Anderson was re-elected for the succeeding term, session of 1910-11, and
was influential in bringing about a great deal of helpful legislation. He was
one of the authors of the bill creating the bureau of labor; he was the author
of the bill reapportioning the state of Georgia into twelve congressional
districts instead of eleven, providing for one additional congressman; he took
an active part in the passage of the act increasing the borrowing power of the
governor from $200,000 to $500,000, and also in that providing for the payment
of corporation taxes in September instead of December. He was one of the authors
of the general educational bill, which became a law. He was thus concerned in
all the leading issues in the legislature and no member was prominent in a more
effective or praiseworthy fashion. In the year 1912 Mr. Anderson was one of the
eight delegates from the state at large to the national Democratic convention in
Baltimore, and in October of that year he was elected to the senate of Georgia
as senator from the first senatorial district for the term of two years.

   Mr. Anderson during his earlier years took a strong interest in military
matters. He was for several years an active member of the Georgia Hussars and
later held a commission from the state as second lieutenant in the Savannah
Volunteer Guards, two of the oldest and most historic military organizations in
the South. He has also entered upon various congenial social relations, being a
member of the Oglethorpe Club of Savannah, of which he is the vice-president; of
the Capital City Club of Atlanta; the Savannah Golf Club; the Savannah Yacht
Club; and the Georgia Historical Society. He is also a Royal Arch Mason, a
member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is an Episcopalian and is
one of the vestrymen of Christ church, Savannah.

   Mr. Anderson was married November 27,1895, to Anne Page Wilder, of Savannah,
only child of Joseph J. and Georgia Page (King) Wilder. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson
have had three children: Page Randolph Anderson, born August 27, 1899; Jefferson
Randolph Anderson, born September 3, 1902, died November 29, 1903; and Joseph
Wilder Anderson, born April 22, 1905. The family residence is in Savannah, with
a summer home, "Oakton," at the foot of Kenesaw mountain, near Marietta, Georgia.


Additional Comments:
A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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