Biography of Joe J. Anderson

Joe J. Anderson, son of Robert Sanders and Sallie Wooten Anderson, was born near Hawkinsville, March 10, 1846, and died September 3, 1926. He married Laura Sheppard of Hawkinsville, Georgia, June 25, 1867. He was a Mason, was reared to agricultural pursuits, and became a large landowner and planter. At sixteen years of age he answered the call to arms, and served four years in Company B, Fourteenth Georgia Artillery, as flag-bearer. In battle at Griswoldville his flagstaff was shot into splinters. He stood on his horse and held the flag high above his head, using his body as a flagstaff, when his horse was killed and fell upon the rider’s legs. Word was passed to his brother, Captain Anderson, and his aides rushed to him, and, thinking he was killed, replaced his horse. He arose, however, and proceeded to hold the flag as before.
There were six children: Chas. C. Anderson, a prominent and successful druggist of Huntsville, Ala., who married Leila Worthem Coles of Huntsville. From that union was one daughter, Mrs. Lucile Coles Anderson Hertzler. Council Anderson married Bessie Watson of Hawkinsville. They had seven children: Douglas, Gertrude, Elizabeth, Ruth, Charlie, Estha, and Laura. Carl Sanders Anderson, a successful and beloved druggist of Huntsville, was born November 7, 1877, and died January 27, 1904. Sallylu Anderson married Howard Worthem Coles of Huntsville. They had one daughter, Mrs. Leila Coles Wilkins. He was very successful and prominent in the hardwood flooring industry. Seven years after his death she married Jack Rogers of Pine Bluff, Ark. Fannylene Anderson married Stuart W. Turner, December 28, 1904. Their only child, Emma Turner, married D. L. Rhoad, Jr., of Branchville, S. C., on September 4, 1931. They have one child, Sallylu Anderson Rhoad. Dr. J. J. Anderson, loved by all who knew him because of the thousand little generally unknown acts of kindness, died August 27, 1930. To their children they left a rich legacy of an honorable and useful life.