Alexander Outlaw ANDERSON, Congress, TN (1794-1869)

ANDERSON, Alexander Outlaw, (son of Joseph Anderson), a Senator from Tennessee; born at “Soldiers’ Rest,” Jefferson County, Tenn., November 10, 1794; attended preparatory schools; graduated from Washington College at Greeneville, Tenn.; enlisted in the War of 1812 and fought in the Battle of New Orleans; studied law in Washington, D.C.; admitted to the bar in 1814 in Dandridge, Tenn., where he practiced law; later moved to Knoxville; superintendent of the United States land office in Alabama in 1836; government agent for removing the Indians from Alabama and Florida in 1838; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hugh L. White, and served from February 26, 1840, to March 3, 1841; was not a candidate for reelection; leader of an overland company which went to California in 1849; member of the State senate in 1850 and 1851; supreme court judge of California 1851-1853; returned to Tennessee in 1853; later practiced law in Washington, D.C., before the Court of Claims and before the Supreme Court of the United States; during the Civil War moved to Alabama and practiced law in Mobile and Camden; died in Knoxville, Tenn., May 23, 1869; interment in the Old Gray Cemetery.

Bibliography

McKellar, Kenneth. “Alexander Outlaw Anderson,” in Tennessee Senators as Seen by One of their Successors. Kingsport, Tenn.: Southern Publishers, Inc., 1942, 222-230.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present