ANDERSON, MERIWETHER L.
Meriwether Lewis Anderson, M. D.
     Dr. Anderson, through both paternal and maternal lines, is connected with distinguished men, famed in the civil and military history of Virginia from the earliest colonial days to the present. The emigrant ancestors, Scotch, English, Welsh and Irish, date from 1620, when Nicholas Martian came from England, and 1635, when Robert Lewis came from Wales; in 1753, when John Scott from the north of Ireland had land patented to him in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Other ancestors came to Virginia: George Reade from England in 1637; Augustine (1) Warner, from England, date unknown; Nicholas Meriwether, from Wales, date unknown; Raleigh Travers, in 1653; William Thornton, of Yorkshire, England, in 1660; Robert Talliaferro from England; David Anderson, of Scotch ancestry; John Harper, of Philadelphia and Alexandria; Gerard Fowke, of Gunston Hall, Staffordshire, England, to Stafford county, Virginia, 1669; Dr. Gustavus Brown, of Scotland and Maryland; Captain William Daniel a royalist officer, settled in Middlesex county, Virginia; Zachary Lewis, of Wales, in 1694; Rev. John Moncure, of Scotland, settled in Stafford county, Virginia, in 1733; Colonel Joseph Ball, of London; John Waller, of England, and Lieutenant William Lewis of the revolutionary army. All these are found fully recorded in Hayden's "Virginia Genealogies," the "Lewises and Kindred Families," Watson's "A Royal Lineage," "Some Notable Families of America," and Pitman's "Americans of Gentle Birth."
From David Anderson, the Scotchman, sprang Edmund Anderson, a farmer and merchant of Hanover and Albemarle counties, Virginia. His wife, Jane Meriwether (Lewis) Anderson, was a devoted Christian, of wide influence, greatly beloved. She was a daughter of Lieutenant William Lewis, Continental line, and only full sister of Meriwether Lewis, the explorer of Columbia and Missouri rivers.
     Their son, Dr. Meriwether Lewis Anderson, born in Virginia, June 23, 1806, was a well beloved country doctor, with a large practice in Albemarle county, having a beautiful country home, "Locust Hill," where his son, Charles Harper Anderson, father of Dr. Meriwether Lewis (2) Anderson, of Richmond, was born. He was a Methodist. His family had left the established church and become Methodist, and Dr. Anderson, rather late in life, joined that church. He gave efficient service in large military hospitals at Charlottesville and the University of Virginia during the Confederate war. He was elected to the Virginia legislature, but served only a few months, dying March 6, 1863, in the midst of the session. He married Lucy S. Harper. He left issue: Meriwether Lewis, unmarried, killed in the battle at Brook Run, near Fisher's Hill, October 8, 1864; Charles Harper; Mary Miller, who married B. R. A. Scott.
     Charles Harper Anderson, son of Dr. Meriwether Lewis and Lucy S. (Harper) Anderson, was born at "Locust Hill," Albemarle county, Virginia, June 28, 1848. He was a farmer and merchant of the county, and is noted for gentleness and firmness of character, combined with quixotic honesty. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and a Democrat. He was married at "Bel-air," Spottsylvania county, Virginia, February 15, 1872, by Rev. James P. Smith, of "Stonewall" Jackson's staff, to Sarah Travers Lewis Scott, born at "Bel-air," March 31, 1847. She is the daughter of James McClure and Sarah Travers (Lewis) Scott, and a descendant of John Scott, William McClure, Robert Lewis, Augustine Warner, speaker of the Virginia house of burgesses; Zachary Lewis, John Waller, Captain William Daniel, Joseph Ball, Raleigh Travers, Rev. John Moncure, Peter and Travers Daniel, signers of the protest against the Stamp Act, and other men of note. Children of Charles Harper Anderson: Meriwether Lewis (2), of whom further; Sarah Travers Lewis Scott, born February 1, 1874, married George Gordon; Charles Harper (2), born December 3, 1875; Alfred Scott, born February 14, 1878; Jane Lewis, born and died in 1882; a son, born and died February 18, 1883; Lucy Butler, born August 15, 1885, married B. Ernest Ward; Alden Scott, born February 24, 1888.
     Dr. Meriwether Lewis (2) Anderson, of Richmond, Virginia, eldest child of Charles Harper and Sarah Travers Lewis (Scott) Anderson, was born at the family home, "Locust Hill," near the old Ivy Station, Albemarle county, Virginia, November 13, 1872. After home tuition until he was thirteen years of age, he began attending Fishburne Military School. He remained at home until he was seventeen years of age, assisting his father on the homestead and in his general store. From seventeen to twenty-four years of age he was in the employ of the Adams Express Company as messenger. In 1896 he took a general business course at Smithdeal Business College in Richmond. In 1897 the medical instinct of Dr. Meriwether Lewis (1) Anderson, his grandfather, combined with a line of distinguished physicians on his maternal side, asserted itself and Meriwether Lewis (2) began a medical course at the Medical College of Virginia, in May, 1900, at the age of twenty-seven years, he was a graduated M. D., and spent the next year, until June, 1901, at the Old Dominion Hospital in Richmond. Since that time he has been engaged professionally in Richmond, located at 928 West Grace street, where he is well established in general practice. He was made a Mason on arriving at legal age, and at thirteen years became a member of the Presbyterian church, joining by his own wish and request. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and a Democrat in politics.
     Dr. Anderson married, in the First Baptist Church, Richmond, September 23, 1903, Rev. George Cooper officiating, Annie Tatum, born in Richmond, May 22, 1874, daughter of William Henry and Mary (Pearman) Tatum, her father a merchant and veteran of the civil war, serving four years in the First Howitzer Confederate army. Children of Dr. Meriwether L. Anderson: Ann Meriwether, born January 13, 1905; Louisa Maury, born December 21, 1906; Sarah Travers, born January 30, 1908; Meriwether Lewis (3), born March 7, 1911.
[Source: Encylopedia of Virginia Biographies - Vol. IV Transcribed by Chris Davis]