Kenneth Lewis Anderson

The stone over Anderson's grave lists his offices; his politics took a sharper line. A shoemaker in his youth, he became sheriff of Bedford County, Tennessee, and a correspondent of James K. Polk before moving to San Augustine in 1837. As Speaker in 1841 he backed Sam Houston and led a failed attempt to impeach Mirabeau Lamar and David Burnet. In 1842 he helped persuade Houston to veto a popular bill to force an invasion of Mexico. In June 1845 he presided over the Senate that approved annexation, and he was widely expected to become the state's first governor.

What the plaque says

Kenneth Lewis Anderson Anderson Erected by the State of Texas In memory of Patience Burdett Wife of Kenneth Lewis Anderson Born in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Dec. 25, 1806 Died July 4, 1886 Buried at San Antonio, Texas in memory of Kenneth Lewis Anderson Born in Hillsboro, North Carolina, Sept. 11, 1805 District Judge, Speaker of the House of the Sixth Congress and last Vice President of the Republic of Texas Died July 3, 1845 The name of the town of Fanthorp was changed to Anderson in his honor

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — steps away
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 9.0 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 15 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• Michael Moore Kennard — steps away
• Fanthorp Inn — steps away
• Orphans Friend Lodge No. 17 Ancient Free & Accepted Masons — 0.4 mi
• Grimes County — 0.4 mi