Theophilus Anderson, a merchant of Curve, was born in Madison County, Tenn.,
November 13, 1840, and was the third member of a family of three sons and
seven daughters born to J. B. and Martha W. (Sherman) Anderson, and is of
English descent. His father was born in South Carolina in 1805, and came with
his parents to Bedford County, Tenn., when a small boy, where he was raised
and educated. In 1830 he moved to Madison County, where he married; in 1851
he moved to Lauderdale County, and settled near Tisdale Springs, and served as
magistrate in his district for several years, dying in Haywood County, July
17, 1875. Our subject’s mother was born in North Carolina, and still lives in
Haywood County. Theophilus Anderson followed farming until 1880; since then
has been in the saw-mill and mercantile business. He enlisted in the
Confederate Army, and belonged to the Sixth Tennessee Infantry, under Col. Wm.
A. Stephens, of Jackson, Tenn., and was in the battles of Perryville and
Chickamauga, and in the retreat from Dalton to Atlanta; was two years and six
months in the quartermaster’s department, and in the army four years. Mr.
Anderson was married in Haywood County, January 1, 1867, to Elizabeth J.
Garrett, daughter of Henderson Garrett; one son, Floyd A., was born to this
marriage. Mrs. Anderson was born in Madison County, in 1842, and died in
Lauderdale County, in 1870. December 21, 1871, our subject was again married
in Haywood County, to Mary E. Garrett, who was born in the same county, in
February, 1844. Three sons and one daughter were born to this union: Eustace,
John P., Ivan and Florence E. In politics Mrs. Anderson is a Democrat, he is
a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was W. M. of his lodge, and, with his
wife, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He is a member of the
firm of Irvin & Anderson, at Curve, Tenn., and is an influential citizen of
that place.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN