James Jasper Thomas Anderson, My Maternal Great-Grandfather

James Jasper Thomas Anderson (I'll call him JJ for short) is an enigmatic character in my family tree. We have only one photograph of him and don't seem to have much reliable information about him, either. What we do know is that he was born in Inkerman, Canada and that his parents came from Scotland before he was born. The earliest records we have been able to find show him living with his mother and brothers in Janesville, Wisconsin according to the 1860 Census. 

James Jasper Thomas Anderson
and Scottish Anderson Plaid

According to family lore, JJ's father was killed in a well blast accident, and after that, JJ had to quit school and return home to help out around the farm. He had loved school and was good at the sport of boxing. 

As an adult, he was married two different times. My great grandmother, Mary Eliza Peck, was his first wife, and they married in 1869, when they were in their 20's. At the time, her family was living in Fulton, about 4 miles away from Janesville, Wisconsin, where his family was living. They were married in the United Brethren Church, which seems to have been a precursor of today's United Methodist Church. 

He and Mary raised a family of seven children on a farm given to Mary by her father. The eldest, Mary Ella, was born on the farm in Plymouth, Iowa in 1870. Also born in Plymouth were Hattie Belle, Alta Grace, Levi Archie, Roscoe James, and Leo Burton. The youngest, Ralph Kirk, was born in Rock Springs, Iowa in 1886, about 4 miles away from Plymouth. Perhaps they had bought a house in town? 

We also know that in 1904 JJ Anderson married another lady named Mary Alice Porter, in Independence, Missouri and of that union Frances Edgerta Anderson was born. But, something captured his imagination or time once again and he departed and stayed gone for years. One day he returned to find seven year old Frances walking home from school. Noticing her blue eyes and familiar features, he asked her, "Is your name Frances?" to which she responded in the affirmative and he introduced himself as her father. From that point on, he seems to have exhausted his desire to travel about and he stayed with the family for the remaining years in his life. 

He apparently was charming and bright and was good at building things. He apparently built stone bridges and was a building and cement contractor. There is some speculation that perhaps his interests were was part of the problem to begin with; he preferred to be building, planning, measuring, and hoisting and so on. Perhaps a more social life than that of a farmer would have suited him, and that could be why his first marriage did not last. My grandfather reported that his mother suffered after his repeated and unexpected depatures and told him that if he left again, she wold divorce him. Although there are no records of his marriage to her or of their divorce, he no longer seemed to be involved with Mary Eliza Anderson or her children. In one family recollection, Mary Eliza's brother warned her not to marry JJ Anderson but the particular details pertaining to this warning are not known. Considering the amount of time that he was gone from each these wives and families, it is possible that there are more wives and families that we do not know about.