From Proud Heritage, Vol 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
When William Anderson and wife, Celia Ann Lair Anderson, came to Dallas County in 1852, they were following the choice of their third son, John Lair Anderson and wife, Emily Jane Peak Anderson. John’s family had arrived in 1846 and patented 640 acres in present day Garland.
William, born about 1785 in Virginia, married in Bourbon County, Kentucky on March 14, 1808. The family left the Kentucky frontier (Harrison County) in 1828 for Marion County (later named Lewis County), Missouri. William’s parents were William and Elizabeth Hinkson Anderson. His mother died around 1790. The senior William and his second wife, Elizabeth Miller, moved to Missouri with the rest of the family. Celia Lair Anderson was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky about 1791 and was the daughter of Andrew and Lady Frances Hubbard Lair.
William and Celia were in their latter years. Most of their grown children came to Dallas County also. They were: William Lair and wife Eliza Morris Anderson; Elizabeth Ann and Silas Bryant who had come earlier, between 1849 and 1850; Thomas Lair and wife Naomi Elizabeth Jones Anderson; Lucy Ann, the youngest child, who married Wormley Carter after arriving here. (He was on the first surveying team with W. A. Ferris in 1850 to set county boundaries and later became County Sheriff.) Frances Ann Jones, Celia Ann Lackland and son, Andrew Lair and wife Elizabeth Johnson Anderson remained in Missouri.
It is interesting to note that Celia was making sure that her name would be perpetuated as all her sons were given her maiden name as a second name; her daughters were given her second name, Ann.
William and Celia purchased one-half of James Loving’s 640 acre headright. The log cabin they built on the land survived until around 1930 when it was destroyed by fire.
The cabin was situated on the summit of a rise overlooking the Rowlett Creek (then called Rowlett’s Creek) bottomlands. This area, near the Anderson Cemetery, is on the west marina peninsula of Lake Ray Hubbard directly off Highway 67, adjacent to Faulkner Point.
They grew vegetables, corn, wheat, cotton and planted orchards with seed brought from Missouri. Meat was supplied from sheep, hogs, cattle, fowls and deer; fish and other animals were plentiful. Sugar was unavailable, honey and wild fruits were substituted. The salt “lick” which supplied the settlers, Indians and animals so bountifully is now under the waters of the lake.
William did not live to enjoy his new home very long. Six years later, on March 8, 1858, in his 63rd year, he died of a condition said to have been aggravated by a badly inflamed knee joint from which he had suffered since the trek from Missouri. Despite his advanced age, he had refused to ride with the women, but had insisted on leading his own ox team. His will was one of the earliest to be probated in the new county, it was # 2 in the county records. Celia died August 15, 1859 in her 69th year. Both are buried in the family cemetery where a state historical marker was dedicated on October 8, 1972.
They did not live to know that the War Between the States would divide their family. Their son, Andrew, who had remained in Missouri, was forced to flee to Texas. As he was a Southern sympathizer, his wife and children turned against him. One of Andrew’s sons, Joseph, later came to Dallas County to be with his father’s family.
John and wife Emily Anderson and his sister and brother-in-law, Lucy Ann and Wormley Carter, were charter members of the Dallas County Pioneer Association in 1875.
William Lair and wife Eliza Anderson had two sons when they left Missouri, James Austin and John William. James A. married (1st) Sarah Amelia Montgomery, (2nd) Frances (Fannie) Cumpton. John William married Mary Desdamonia (Dez) Mayes. The other children were born in Dallas County. Lite Morris died young; George Washington married Lucy Beuregard White; Elias Tidwell married Lucy Jane Crownover; Obithia Hampton married James A. White; Samuel Andrew married Annie Mary Denton.
John William, born April 14, 1849 in Lewis County, Missouri and Dez Mayes Anderson, born October 26, 1859 in Courtland (Lawrence County) Alabama, were married June 3, 1874; they had eleven children. Only four of them reached maturity: William Henry (Will), Mattie Agnes, Mabel Cora, and Minnie Ola. Will married Minnie Loving, and had four daughters: Clelia Mayes Anderson married Thaddeus Franklin Wheeless, had two children, T. F., Jr. and Narieda (Rita); Clessie lnez married Clifford Charles Buckland; Willie Clytes married James Wesley Cullar, had one son, James W., Jr. (Jim), who married Katherine Lee Cozzens and had one son, James W., III (Jay); Mary Des married Edgar Merldean Hartsfield. They had a son, Duane Dean.
References: Bible, court and census records, obituaries, family memoirs.
By W. Clytes Anderson Cullar, Dallas
