Dear Kinfolk,

September 20, 1865 ………..Fort Davis diary of Susan Newcomb……..”Albert Anderson got in from Weatherford (Texas) this evening and had not been in too long until it was reported around town that he was going to get married in a week or two”.

Turns out this rumor proved true, on October 16, 1865, Albert J. Anderson married Nancy Wilson in Weatherford, Texas.

Albert and Nancy Anderson

After the ceremony they returned to Fort Davis.  Along with helping his father Henry M. and brothers in the cattle and horse business, he also had duties of a Texas Ranger.  His granddaughter wrote that Albert “circulated around the Indian country” for the next five years.  Research shows that a Ranger/Scout , for a  certain amount of time each week,  was required to protect their area from  Comanche raids.

We learned a lot about the family cattle business in a letter from brother John Henry Anderson to his sister Lucinda,  he refers to “starting with 400 of my best beef to Colorado yesterday”.  He would have traveled through Comanche territory, he wrote “got through OK”.   In the southeast corner of New Mexico he would have joined the Goodnight/Loving cattle trail, north to Colorado.  What a contrast the brothers must have discovered, driving the cattle through dangerous, hot and dusty west Texas, north to cool and green Colorado.  This Goodnight/Loving trail went right by La Junta, Colorado, that had to influence Albert and other members of the family to move to the La Junta and Pueblo area. 

La Junta and Fort Davis Map

Albert and Nancy’s first child, (our grandfather), William Henry Anderson, was born in Weatherford, Texas, on August 28, 1867.  His sister Sarah E. Anderson was also born in Weatherford in 1868.  Nancy  lived in Fort Davis but I believe she went to Weatherford as there were no doctors at the fort.   Their next two girls Martha and Ellen were born at Fort Davis.  

 The 1880 census showed Albert and family living in Bent County, Colorado.  La Junta is located in Bent, County.  Albert and Nancy’s next four children, Minnie E., Albert Calvin, May E. and Nancy Belle were all born in La Junta, Colorado.   The family consisted of nine children which included a sister’ child, Ada Cobbler, who they adopted.

Anderson Children

In my July 16, 2011 blog, WILLIAM HENRY ANDERSON  1867-1955,  I wrote about the La Junta log cabin school-house was built by Albert and his son William.  In my research I found the RULES FOR TEACHERS for Bent County.  My how times have changed.

Rules for Teachers

We know that Albert’s occupation in  La Junta was a stock man, breaking the wild Mustang horses and selling them.  Colorado was short on cattle, but they had thousands of wild mustang and there was a market for these horses in Texas.  Supply and demand….. drive the horses to Texas and return to Colorado with cattle.  Aunt Noma wrote “granddad Albert raised horses which he ran on free range (Comanche grassland), had as many as 1100 head at once”.

Next  week we will follow the Anderson clan back to Oklahoma Territory.

Jim Lee