"Old Shelby" Anderson

"Know Your Heritage"

Panola Watchman Carthage, Texas, 25 May 1975
By Leila B. LaGrone

Jonathan Anderson, known by his friends as "Old Shelby," has the distinction of having served Panola County well in its early days.

There are conflicts in reports of his birth dates. Early stories of him say he crossed the Sabine River at Logansport, La., in 1819 on his twenty-first birthday, making him born in 1798. Panola County Census Records for 1850 show that he was born in Kentucky in 1800. The Census also shows that he married Hannah, a native of Tennessee, and their first child, Mahala, was born in Texas in 1825.

At any rate, he settled about four-and-a-half miles southeast of Carthage in Shelby County long before there was either a Panola County or Carthage resident. His home was in the neighborhood of the Anderson, English and McFadden families. Anderson owned the pine forest where Carthage now stands. Though he had made his claim in pre-Texas Republic days when the area was still under Mexican rule, the Head-Right survey was not completed by Texas Republic for a patent until June 1848. It was at that time an uninhabited forest.

Jonathan Anderson was a veteran of the Texas Revolution. At the age of 89, in 1887, he applied for a donation Land Certificate under the Texas Revolutionary Veteran Act of 1881. He stated on that application, "I, Jonathan Anderson, rendered service from November 1, 1831, to the end of the War, or furnished a substitute in my place. I was in actual military service of Texas at the time of the siege of Bexar, in December, 1835. I was at the Battle of San Jacinto, in April, 1836."

Capt. John English signed the application as Anderson's representative, and Anderson signed with his mark. Witnesses were John Sinclair and W.B. Biggar.

When Panola County was formed from Shelby and Harrison Counties in 1846, Jonathan Anderson's land was near the very center of the new county.

A temporary county seat was first established at Pulaski, one of two major villages of the county at the time. An argument arose between citizens in Pulaski and those in the Grand Bluff area as to where the permanent seat ofjustice should be. The Texas Legislature required that the people choose a place not more than five miles from the geographical center of the county. The Act of the Second Legislature of the State of Texas, on March 15, 1848, ordered, "... Commissioners shall have powers to purchase land in an amount not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres for the use of said county, or to receive any amount as a donation."

Jonathan Anderson came forward and offered to donate one hundred acres of land for the use of the county, if the people saw fit to select the center of the county for the county seat.

When the election was held to choose between Pulaski and Carthage, the choice fell on Carthage. Though the people of Grand Bluff protested, the election was declared legal and final.

In keeping with his promise Jonathan Anderson appeared at the County Clerk's office, November 13, 1848, and deeded one hundred acres of land to "Thomas G. Davenport and his successors in office for the use of Panola County." He had been elected sheriff for the county, an office he held for four years. He continued to serve in various county offices until 1862.

An interesting story appears in Panola Watchman for August 13, 1873. The editor, Tom Bowers, gives the story in this way, "Our usually quiet little village was thrown into quite a furor of excitement on Friday evening last, over the discovery of a large rattlesnake four feet in length on the public square immediately in front of the Watchman office; which was first discovered by "Uncle Shelby" Jonathan Anderson, whose centurion voice (he's only 76) brought a number of our villagers to the spot ... After the serpent's head was bruised in such manner as to render a close inspection safe, it was found that it had four rattlers and a button, which those versed in snakeology say makes it seven years old.

"Now we believe that God is good and all-wise and made everything good in its place; but we don't think the public square is the place for rattlesnakes, and for the safety of our citizens, we hope to see no more of them. Unless we elect and organize the town trustees and have the public square cleaned off, and Sheriff A.B. ROSS has the rank weeds and briers removed from the Court-yard, we can expect these places to be favorite resorts for snakes, lizards and other detestable and dangerous reptiles ... "Let us have a Municipal election at once and elect our town officers, place our streets in thorough repair and thereby show to the world that we have some pride left. But while we're doing all this, we hope the Sheriff will bear in mind that his realm the Court-Yard, is decidedly weedy; and that if he desires to make a clean sweep in December, he must pull up the weeds and clear the way in August ..."

Evidently, the sheriff, A.B. Ross, had no major problem being re-elected during this period of Reconstruction, for he served in that position until 1878.

Jonathan Anderson died in 1889, at the age of 91. He was buried in Anderson Cemetery. No dates are readable on his old decaying gravestone. When the Old Courthouse was removed from the Square in 1956, the plot was landscaped and named Anderson Park in his memory.