Descendants of Mitchell B. Anderson

 

 

Generation No. 1

 

1.  MITCHELL B.⁴ ANDERSON  (BENJAMIN³, JOSHUA², ABRAHAM¹) was born Abt. 1823 in Greene County, Alabama^1,2.

 

Notes for MITCHELL B. ANDERSON:

1835 Census, Sabine District, Texas

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From the notes of Frankie Pearson:

"Went to Toulemne County, Calif. to the Gold Rush- made a nice strike. Their camp was in Yosemite National Park. Believe he returned to Nocogdoches. Some names taken from letters from ones in Calif.- Andrew J Anderson- Ben- Little Ben- Jack- Lee J- Mitchel B- Robert J- Thomas Howard - William A - Walter Howard - Buford (Bufe) - Huf Pleasant - Thomas Jef Shaw -y Julius Sims ?- Ance or Ames Sims ? May be others.  Mr. Carlo M De Ferrari County Clerk and Auditor, Sonora, Claif- letter Aug 3, 1966. Has material for a book and a Diary of an Anderson of the trip to Calif.  Thought may be our Anderson but have not received any information. Hope to hear before too long, about it.  If anyone knows or has any old letters or papers or information he said would like to get it to put in his book.  I recall we had a large picture of a tree in California and a rock of minerals that we knew came from Calif., and guess that is where it came from - must have brought it back when they came back.

 

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1968- Find Mitchel Anderson in Cherokee Co - Land Grant from Austin no. 71 of Nacogdoches - 320 acres -

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From the notes of Terry Anderson:

Mitchell B. Anderson was goldrush kid who went to California in the 1850s and apparently stayed there with his brother Robert, rather than returning home to Texas.

 

Born in Alabama around 1823, he arrived in Texas at the age of ten. Mitchell shows up on the 1835 census at age 12 with his parents in the Sabine District. The fact that he doesn't show on the 1850 census has led most family researchers to believe that he was in California by this time.

 

According to R.B. Blake, "Mitchell B. Anderson, was living in Tuolumne County, Calif., in 1855, having gone there after the gold strike."

 

According to Ogreta Huttash, Mitchell "shared in estate of Benjamin Anderson, was in Tuolumne County, California at that time, in 1858. Benjamin Anderson sold a slave to raise the money for the trip. All say he never married. Am not sure when he went to California. FP thought his GLO Cert. 71 was in Cherokee County."

 

 This land grant or warrant, is mentioned in the reference book, "1840 Texas Land Grants, Vols. 1 and 2." It shows that Mitchell Anderson arrived in Texas in June, 1840. We know that he actually arrived in 1834 with his parents, but in 1840 he would've been around 18 years old, 17 being the minimum age for eligibility. It is a class 3 certificate, meaning that he arrived after Oct. 1, 1837 and "resided in the Republic three years and performed the duties of citizenship," and is said to be for 640 acres. Interestingly, 640 acres was given to a head of household, whereas 320 acres were given to single men, 17 years or older. We don't know that Mitchell was ever married.

 

The conditional certificate is marked Nacogdoches County, Sept., 27, 1841. The unconditional certificate is dated Feb. 28, 1846.

 

Jane Melton's write-up repeats the same facts about the land grant and the Goldrush and adds, "An Anderson cousin in Ft. Worth has box of old letters, many of them from these boys who went to the gold country. The cousin who has the letters is of (Thomas Howard's) branch. She is Mary Anderson, Mrs. B." We're pretty sure the Mary Anderson that she speaks of was Mrs. Hugo Buergener, though we have her first name as Nan rather than Mary. Two of the Goldrush letters, passed down from Frankie Pearson, are reprinted in this volume, though others may exist.

 

The letter from March of 1854 states that, "all well at present except Mitchell who has been unwell for sometime but on the mend again." The second letter, written in July 1855, doesn't mention Mitchell but mentions a "Ben" and "Little Ben Anderson," as separate individuals. We think that Little Ben might refer to Mitchell, if his middle name stands for Benjamin. In this letter it says that he "is working three miles from this place. Has a very, very good claim but speaks of selling out and going up where we are." Having gotten a late start in the California gold rush, the success of the Andersons in panning for gold was marginal at best.

 

Mitchell was actually in California in the fall of 1853. As described in the next chapter, Mitchell Anderson had a claim located on a small creek called Sugar Pine creek about 20 miles east of Sonora. The claim was filed Oct. 7, 1853. This would've been a month after his father, Benjamin, had passed away. We don't know exactly when the boys left for California. In R.B. Blake's note regarding brother A.J. Anderson, he writes that, "he went with his brother, Mitchell B., to California in 1850, but returned to Nacogdoches."

 

The assumption that Mitchell B. died in California, either in the gold fields or later, has not been universally accepted. According to a note in Ogreta Huttash's compilation, some believed that Mitchell came back to Texas and died in San Augustine. Frankie Pearson once believed this, she said.

 

Whatever his fate, he was supposed to have been in Tuolomne County, Calif., at the time Benjamin Anderson's will was processed in 1858. He doesn't appear in the 1860 FC in either California or Texas.

 

 

 

More About MITCHELL B. ANDERSON:

Census: 1835, Texas

 

 

Endnotes

 

1.  "Family Group Sheet of Frankie Pearson," Shown b c1823 Ala - never married.

2.  Terry.Anderson@LATimes.com, It is said that he went to Tuolumne County, California  in 1855 during the Gold Rush, and died there.