Francis T. Anderson

Who was Francis T. Anderson?

Francis Thomas Anderson was born in Botetourt County, Virginia. He received his education at first from his mother and then at the school of Curtis Alderson at Ben Salem in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Later he attended the Fincastle Classical School for several years before enrolling in Washington College, from which he graduated at the age of nineteen. He studied law under Fleming B. Miller and Chancellor Creed Taylor and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. For a few years, he taught a small class of law students, but because of his law practice, he had to give that up. In 1855, he moved to Rockbridge County where he lived until 1866. According to a statement found in the archive of the Virginia Military Institute, "Judge F. T. Anderson was to give an oration and raise the US flag at the court house, but when he learned that Virginia had seceded he announced that the flag now “was in the hands of the enemy and would not be raised in Lexington.”" He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1861 but owing to impaired health, declined re-election in 1863. In 1869, he resumed the practice of law and, in 1870, was appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeals. Here, he remained until 1883 when he retired and returned to private practice. From 1879 until his death, he was rector of Washington and Lee University.