Anderson, Balaam

ANDERSON BOWEN

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 3/26/2020 at 09:36:12

BALAAM ANDERSON, deceased, was born in Virginia, May 20, 1793, and when six months old was taken by his parents to Kentucky, where they remained nine years, then went to Adams County, Ohio, where Balaam grew to manhood. In 1815 he was married in West Union, Ohio, to Wilhelmina Bowen, who was born in Maryland in 1793, and when a girl of nine was taken to Ohio. They were the parents of eight children, three of whom – James B., Henry B. and Levi B. – lived to adult age. In 1839 the Andersons came to Iowa, locating on section 34, in the southern part of Washington County. They shared the hardships and privations of the pioneers, and overcame them. The only floor of their first cabin was old mother earth, on whose broad bosom has been nurtured many a worthy son.
At the time Mr. Anderson settled in this county there was not a house between his place and where Washington now stands, and the nearest trading-posts were at Burlington and Lowell, and two weeks was often consumed in going to and coming from mill, teams coming from miles around. Afterward “corn crackers” were started up in various neighborhoods. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson lived a happy wedded life for more that fifty-five years. The husband died on Jan. 30, 1870, and the wife on Nov. 8, 1880. Both were for several years before their death members of the Christian Church, and were esteemed as upright people.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of Balaam Anderson, page 362.