William Black ANDERSON, Congress, IL (1830-1901)

ANDERSON, William Black, a Representative from Illinois; born in Mount Vernon, Ill., April 2, 1830; attended the common schools; was graduated from McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., in 1850; surveyor of Jefferson County in 1851; studied law; was admitted to the bar but never practiced; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of representatives in 1856 and 1858; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a private in the Sixtieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry; commissioned lieutenant colonel of the regiment February 17, 1862, and colonel, April 4, 1863; brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers March 13, 1865; resigned December 26, 1864; member of the constitutional convention of Illinois in 1869; served in the State senate in 1871; elected as an Independent to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877); was not a candidate for renomination in 1876; collector of internal revenue for the southern district of Illinois 1885-1889; United States pension agent in Chicago from November 9, 1893, to January 17, 1898; died in Chicago, Ill., August 28, 1901; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Ill.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present