My Genealogy Hound

W. B. Anderson, A. B., M. S., president of Western Academy, was born in Verona, Boone Co., Ky., in 1857. He is the son of Thomas V. and Mary A. (Roberts) Anderson. The father is of Scotch stock, born in Boone County, Ky., in 1823. The mother is of German origin, a native of the same county, born in 1832. His ancestors came to America during the Reformation. The father was apprenticed to the wagon-maker’s trade, under his father, William, at the age of seventeen. In 1854 he entered 260 acres near Edina, his present home. For eight years he was justice, and is an influential farmer. The mother, now fifty-five years old, reared three sons: Benjamin L., W. B. and Thomas B. Our subject was educated at the Kirksville Normal, graduating in 1881 in the classical course. He afterward studied languages and mathematics in Missouri University. In 1879 he became a teacher, and was principal of the Knox City High School. In 1882-83 his alma mater conferred the degree of M. S., and the same year he purchased Western Academy, which he has made one of the leading institutions of this region, and whose attendance he has doubled. He has students from various parts of the country, and one from Asia Minor. June 8, 1882, he married Missouri A., a daughter of Eli and Elvira Lyon, born in Knox County in 1861. Rosco F. is the only child. His wife was educated at Oak Lawn College and Kirksville Normal, where she graduated in 1880. She taught in her fourteenth year, and continued ten terms, and is now general assistant in her husband’s academy. The Professor is one of the leading educators of this section. In politics he is a Democrat, and is a Presbyterian, while his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Prof. Anderson is an original investigator in mathematics and languages. He has collected many literary curiosities, and has developed several principles in mathematics.