Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/432

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

his present business as an electrical con- tractor on Washington street, under the style of B. Mason Hill. He is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pe- tersburg, and of the Kappa Sigma, a Greek letter fraternity connected with Hampden- Sidney College and Cornell.

William Alexander Anderson, soldier, lawyer, and legislator, was born in Bote- tourt county, Virginia, in 1842. His parents were Francis T. Anderson and Mary Ann Anderson, daughter of Andrew Alexander. On his father's side he is descended from Robert Anderson, who came from county Donegal, Ireland, in 1755, settled first in Delaware (where he married), and after- wards in what is now Botetourt county, Virginia. Archibald Alexander, his ma- ternal ancestor, came from county Antrim, Ireland, and, in 1747, settled in what was then Augusta, now Rockbridge county, Vir- ginia.

His father was one of the distinguished men of his day in Virginia, serving during his long and useful life, as a member of the Virginia legislature, presidential elector, trustee and rector of Washington and Lee University, judge of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia, and in other positions of honor and trust.

Mr. Anderson passed much of his youth in the country, and obtained his primary education in the local schools. He was a student at Washington and Lee University at the beginning of the war between the states, and in April, 1861, enlisted in the military service of the state as orderly ser- geant of the Liberty Hall Volunteers, which became Company I of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, Stonewall Brigade. With this company he participated in the campaign in the lower valley of Virginia in June and July, and in the battle of July 21, 1861, at Manassas, where he received a wound in the knee, which permanently disabled him. Nevertheless, in 1864, while yet on crutches, he was a member of a temporary artillery command formed in Albemarle county, largely of disabled soldiers, and again saw service during the period of Hunter's inva- sion of the state.

After the war he studied law at the Uni- versity of Virginia, and was graduated in 1866 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He then commenced the practice of his pro-

fession at Lexington, \^irginia, and his abil- ity soon put him in the foremost rank of the lawyers of the state. For eighteen years, Mr. Anderson was a member of the state central, and for six years the state exec- utive committee of the Democratic party, and during a long period of time has had a large share in shaping its policies. Few men in Virginia have rendered the party more effective service than he. His char- acter and his fearless spirit, combined with his masterful intellect and a rare gift of eloquence, make him, a "tower of strength" in political combat.

From 1869 to 1873 he was a member of the Virginia senate, and, from 1883 to 1885, and again from 1887 to 1889, a member of the house of delegates of Virginia. During the Paris International Exposition of 1878, he served as one of the United States com- missioners, and prepared a report on "Means of Transportation by Railroads." Since 1885. he has been a member of the board of trustees of Washington and Lee University, and since June, 1914, the rector of that institution. In 1899, he was elected president of the Virginia Bar Association. He was a member of the Virginia constitu- tional convention of 1901 ; was elected tem- porary president of that body, and chairman of its committee on final revision of the constitution. While the convention was in session, he was elected attorney-general of Virginia for a term of four years, and, in 1905 was again elected for a like term. Since his election as attorney-general, he has also rendered valuable services as a member of the state board of education and in other public capacities.

The constitution of 1902, which made im- portant and radical changes in the funda- mental law and civil polity of the state, not only rendered it necessary for the attorney- general to pass upon a great number of novel and vital questions, but also devolved upon that officer many new and grave duties. His service in this office extended over an eventful period in the history of the commonwealth, a period remarkable for the importance and celebrity of litigation in the highest state and federal courts. In all this litigation, involving interests most vital to the people of Virginia, he served with con- spicuous ability as her counsel. Perhaps the most important of these cases are the suits in the United States courts involving