EMBRY EDGAR ANDERSON was born in Atoka, Tennessee, Tipton county, on the 5th of December, 1880, the son of William Edgar and Nora (Reeves) Anderson. The father, a native of Giles county, Tennessee, is now living with his son, the subject of this sketch, in Memphis [Shelby County], and is seventy-two years of age. The mother, also a Tennessean, was born in Fayette county and has now passed away. Embry E. Anderson is the eldest of the three living children of this couple; the others being a brother, Littleton Paul Anderson, a grain dealer of Memphis who is mentioned at length elsewhere in this work; and a sister, Bessie Maude, now the wife of Dr. H. F. Dickson of Covington. Until he was eighteen years old E. E. Anderson lived in Atoka, where he received a common school education and later attended the Robinson high school. He says that his most valuable training for life’s work was obtained in the “University of Hard Knocks.” He entered this venerable institution as a lad of eighteen, going into the brokerage business at Covington. In 1900 he embarked in the retail and wholesale produce trade in the same city, remaining in this line of work for sixteen years. For several years of this period he was in partnership with his younger brother, buying and selling all kinds of farm produce on a large scale. He was also the most extensive dealer in hickory nuts in the United States, buying and shipping them in large quantities. In 1916 Mr. Anderson came to Memphis to engage in the grain and feed trade, in which he has met with well deserved success. As an authority on the special grades of oats, hay and ear corn he has worked up a large trade in these commodities, which is the distinctive feature of the business of the Industrial Elevator Company of Memphis, of which he is the proprietor. His trade extends through most of the states of the mid-south, and experiences an annual increase as the company is able to meet the demands of a widening market.

On the 14th of December, 1905, Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Erin Crofford of Covington, a member of a prominent family in the state and a native of Coffeyville. Her father, the late Dr. Thomas J. Crofford, was a physician well known in Memphis. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are the parents of three children: Antoinette Elizabeth, Erin, and a little boy of twelve named William Embry. Mrs. Anderson is a leader in the work of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, having been president of the Mary Latham Chapter of Memphis. She is also active in the Court Avenue Presbyterian church, of which she and Mr. Anderson are members, and is a worker in the Sunday school. Mr. Anderson is one of the deacons in the church.

Since coming to Memphis Mr. Anderson has taken a deep interest in the commercial life of the city, especially along his own line of work, becoming identified with the Chamber of Commerce, the Memphis Traffic Club and the Memphis Merchants Exchange, in the latter of which he has served on the board of directors. He is also a member of the National Grain Dealers Association and a member and ex-president of the Grain and Hay Association. His fraternal connections are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. (Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 2, John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1923, pp. 840-1)