C. J. Anderson, born in Zanesville, Ohio, pursued his education at the Ohio State Normal School before enlisting in the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861. He served for over four years during the Civil War. Afterward, he settled in Delavan, Illinois, where he worked in the hardware business. Anderson later moved to Aurora County, South Dakota, becoming one of the founders of Plankinton and establishing its first mercantile business. He held various public offices, including register of deeds, and was active in the Republican Party. He married Elizabeth Gates, and they had three children.
C. J. Anderson, of Plankinton, the capital of Aurora County, was born in the city of Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. He secured his early educational discipline in the common schools and supplemented this by a course of study in the Ohio State Normal School, where he continued his discipline until he had attained the age of twenty-one years. In 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the Western Army and with which he continued in active service for four years and three months, representing practically the entire period of the war. He received his honorable discharge and then returned to his home in Zanesville, where he remained until he removed to Delavan, Illinois, where he maintained his home for a number of years, having been engaged in the hardware business for the major portion of the time. He then came to South Dakota and located in Aurora County, taking up a homestead claim adjoining the site of the present city of Plankinton and becoming one of the founders of the town, while he was also concerned in the organization of the county. Soon after his arrival, he established the first mercantile business in the town, having a small building in which he installed a stock of general merchandise, while later he gave his attention entirely to the hardware business, in which he was engaged until he disposed of his interests in the line and established his present enterprise, having a well-appointed establishment in which he carries a fine assortment of clothing and furnishing goods, while he controls a large and representative trade.
In politics, Mr. Anderson has ever given staunch support to the Republican Party, taking an active part in the promotion of its cause, while he has been called upon to serve in various positions of public trust. He received from the board of county commissioners the appointment to the office of register of deeds and became ex-officio county clerk, the two offices having been jointly administered for a number of years. He held the dual office under this appointment for a period and then was elected to fill the same and was chosen as his own successor at the expiration of his first regular term. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Gates, of Delavan, Wisconsin, and they have three children.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.