Dates: 1905-1915; 1926.
Size: 0.33 cubic ft.

Biography:
Albert Clarence Anderson

Albert Clarence Anderson was born February 7, 1878, in Dumas, Tippah County, Mississippi, the son of farmer William Walter Anderson (1845-1918) and Mary Ann Elizabeth Shackleford (1854-1933). Albert was their fourth child and he had ten siblings: Walter Garland (1872–1943), Lucinda Goldon (1874), Ethel Beulah (1876–1962), Jimmie J. (1882–1884), Sarah May (1885–1919), William Henry (1886–1969), Lou Anna (1888–1976), Robert Lee (1891–1962), Francis Edward (1894–1945), and Tom (1897–1970). His father entered the Confederate Army in 1863, and he saw action under General Forrest and General Joe Johnston. Anderson attended the public schools of Tippah County, however he received additional academic training from Professor L.H. Jobe at Dumas Institute, later called Dumas Consolidated High School.

Joining the legislature as a Democrat at the age of 21, Anderson was sent as a delegate to the State Conventions of 1899 and 1904, and to the national Democratic Conventions of 1912 and 1924. He served as a representative to the Mississippi legislature for sessions 1900 and 1902; 1908-1910. Anderson served on the following committees: Drainage and Public Roads; Education (Chairman); Liquor Traffic (Chairman), Public Printing, Penitentiary, Agriculture, Constitution, and Temperance. He was elected to the Mississippi Senate on November 7, 1911, and was elected President pro tem of the Senate on January 2, 1912, serving in this position until 1914.

Anderson was sent by the State Cotton Association to the national meeting in New Orleans in January 1905; was a Farmers’ Union delegate to the state meeting in Jackson in 1907; represented his Congressional District at the Waterways Convention in Memphis in 1907; held position of secretary at the Tippah County Sunday School Convention; and was a member of the Centennial Commission from 1916-1920. He was a member of the Baptist Church, the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World. He served in several positions in the Masonic Order: as a master of the Ripley Lodge, No. 47; as a junior deacon and senior deacon in the Grand Lodge of Mississippi; and as a member of the Law Committee, Grand Lodge, for one year.

As early as 1914, friends of Anderson urged him to announce his candidacy for governor of Mississippi. Although he did not run for governor at that time, in 1920 and 1922, Anderson campaigned for United States Congress, Second District. In 1927, he entered the race for governor, running against incumbent Governor Murphee, former Governor Theodore G. Bilbo, and Mike Conner. Bilbo was re-elected.

Anderson is most notably known as the editor of the Southern Sentinel, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Ripley Sentinel. In November 1903, he purchased Ripley’s Southern Sentinel and was a successful editor and proprietor of that paper without previous newspaper experience. Anderson was a self-proclaimed prohibitionist, and he advocated for editorial policy of newspapers to refuse whiskey advertising. He was elected President of the Mississippi Press Association in 1911 and served two terms.

On December 24, 1905, in a Methodist church in Dumas, Albert Clarence Anderson married Frances Caroline “Carrie” Humphrey (1882-1966), the daughter of John William and Belle Cleaves Humphrey. The couple had four children: William Humphrey (1906-1980), Mary Belle (1908- 1997), Frances (1913-1993), and George A. (1915-1976). Anderson died on June 24, 1954, and is buried in the Ripley Cemetery of Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi. His spouse Carrie died in 1966 and is also buried in the Ripley Cemetery.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This correspondence consists mostly of letters written by United States Senator James Kimble Vardaman to Mississippi legislator and newspaper editor Albert Clarence Anderson of Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi. Among the topics discussed are the possibility of Anderson's candidacy for United States congress and governor of Mississippi, politics and bills during the 1913-1915 sessions, and the viability of prohibition.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1905; 1907; 1913-1915; 1926.

Most of these fourteen letters were written by James K. Vardaman, former Mississippi Governor, to Mississippi legislator and newspaper editor Albert Clarence Anderson of Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi. For the duration of these letters, Vardaman holds the office of United States Senator and is in Washington, D.C. There are carbon copies of letters sent by Anderson. Vardaman advises on Anderson's candidacy for congress and again for governor, ruminates on Theodore Bilbo, comments on John Sharp Williams’ prohibition position, and shares his concerns about African Americans rejoining politics. Vardaman also provides candid commentary on Washington politics.

The last item of correspondence is Anderson writing to Dunbar Rowland on Southern Sentinel letterhead that he is returning the Biographical Memoranda form to him completed as of March 26, 1926. This form is located in the Subject File for Albert Clarence Anderson.

Box 1, folders 1-14

 

Box List:

Box 1, folder 1: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, November 2, 1905.
Box 1, folder 2: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, December 16, 1907.
Box 1, folder 3: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, March 25, 1907.
Box 1, folder 4: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, August 18, 1913.
Box 1, folder 5: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, June 22, 1914.
Box 1, folder 6: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, April 30, 1914.
Box 1, folder 7: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, September 10, 1914.
Box 1, folder 8: Letter, A.C. Anderson to J.K. Vardaman, September 29, 1914 (carbon copy).
Box 1, folder 9: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, October 2, 1914.
Box 1, folder 10: Letter, J.K. Vardaman and A.C. Anderson, October 7, 1914.
Box 1, folder 11: Letter, A.C. Anderson to J.K. Vardaman, October 19, 1914 (carbon copy).
Box 1, folder 12: Letter, A.C. Anderson to J.K. Vardaman, October 23, 1914 (carbon copy).
Box 1, folder 13: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, January 22, 1915.
Box 1, folder 14: Letter, J.K. Vardaman to A.C. Anderson, January 29, 1915.
Box 1, folder 15: Letter, A.C. Anderson to Dunbar Rowland, March 27, 1926.