Monroe Dunaway Anderson / Anderson, Clayton & Company

The foundation began as tax protection. The cotton partners feared that one partner's death would saddle the firm with estate taxes and force it to dissolve, so Monroe Anderson created the M.D. Anderson Foundation with $300,000. Anderson, his brother Frank and Frank's brother-in-law Will Clayton had scraped up $9,000 to open in Oklahoma City on August 1, 1904. In 1941 the Texas Legislature offered $500,000 for a cancer hospital, and the foundation agreed to match it if the hospital stood in Houston's Texas Medical Center, where it opened in 1954.

What the plaque says

Monroe Dunaway Anderson / Anderson, Clayton & Company Monroe Dunaway Anderson. 1873 - 1939. Monroe Dunaway Anderson is known as the "father" of the Texas Medical Center and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He was born 29 June 1873 on McNairy Hill at the present site of 111 East Orleans Street. Educated in Jackson City Schools and at Union University, he was a banker, philanthropist, and founding partner of Anderson, Clayton & Co., the world's largest merchandiser of cotton during the mid-20th century. His $19 million estate was as of 1939, the largest charitable fund created in the state of Texas. Anderson's generosity not only helped establish the world's largest medical center but also libraries, auditoriums, college buildings, and, on the campus of Lambuth University, a planetarium. He is buried with his family in Jackson's Riverside Cemetery. Anderson, Clayton & Company. Anderson, Clayton & Company, at one time the world's largest merchandiser of cotton, began as Frank E. Anderson & Company, across the street from this plaza. Frank Anderson, Will Clayton and Monroe D. Anderson established their partnership in Oklahoma City on August 1, 1904. Company headquarters moved to Houston in 1916. World War I demands for cotton enhanced their fortunes. Overseas operations were set up in Europe, Egypt, India, and China. By 1945, with 223 gins, 33 cottonseed oil plants and 123 warehouses, the company was the largest buyer, seller, storer, and shipper of raw cotton in the world.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 11 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 24 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• 61st US Colored Infantry Regiment — steps away
• Mother Liberty CME Church — 0.3 mi
• Mabel Louise "Big Maybelle" Smith — 0.4 mi
• Lambuth College — 0.8 mi