The ninth child of Nicholas Anthony, William Horace Anthony’s birth date is supplied by Methodist Tennessee Conference records and by his gravestone.¹ The same records note that “he was reared by plain German parents and by them trained in active and industrious habits.”  His birthplace, according to a statement by his son James, was Bedford County, Tennessee.² He married Elizabeth Pollack (31 May 1811 – 8 June 1888) on 1 October 1837, according to several records of descendants.³  He had moved into Franklin County, Tennessee by 1850 and appears in censuses there through 1880.    He received full shares in both land divisions of his father’s estate.

The 1850 census lists him as a millwright but he was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1851 and is listed in 1860 and 1870 as a Methodist minister and Doctor of Divinity, respectively.   Records of the Tennessee Conference show his assignment to circuits within the McMinnville district, most notably the Pelham Circuit of churches in and around Franklin County.

His sons James and Roddy answered questionnaires regarding their CSA service, providing us with his wife’s name and other helpful information.   Roddy Anthony described his father as a traveling minster and James Frederick Anthony stated “my father was old style Methodist Circuit rider… Father had often as many as 15 churches under his charge and preached every day in the week…” ⁴ This statement also declared that William Horace Anthony was born at Thompson’s Creek in Bedford County but lived most of his life in Moore [formerly Franklin] County, that he and his two older sons joined Turley’s 1st Tennessee Regiment in 1861 and that he served as regimental chaplain until May 1862, when he resigned on account of being afflicted with rheumatism contracted in camp.   NARA records show that William H. Anthony was hospitalized for typhoid fever in April 1862 and for rheumatism in May 1862.

James Anthony’s statement also declares that his father was a “full blooded German” and that all four of his grandparents came from Germany, one of his grandmothers being named Shofner. Roddy Anthony made a similar statement regarding his father’s ancestry.  Roddy gave his father’s middle name as “Harris” and James gave it as “Horace”.   We know that “Horace” is correct, for his full name appears in records of the Methodist Tennessee Conference.⁵

His move across the county line from Bedford County to Franklin (later Moore) County evidently occurred between the births of Roddy and James, each stating the respective county as their own birthplace.

Rev. William H. Anthony and his wife are both buried in the Turkey Creek cemetery in Moore County.

A good deal of information on his family came from my father’s correspondence with Lassie Munsey, a granddaughter of James Frederick Anthony.⁶ There is also a family Bible listing all his children.⁷ The children, from family records, were:

1. Robert H. Anthony (2 July 1838 – 30 January 1910)   He’s in the 1860 census, listed as a lawyer, still in his father’s household.   He joined Company D of Turney’s 1^st Tennessee Regiment as a Sergeant in March 1861 and reenlisted a year later as a private.  According to his brother James Anthony’s statements, Robert served continuously until losing his left leg at Gettysburg.  NARA records show that he was shot at Gettysburg on 1 July 1863, had his left leg amputated the following day, and was among those captured at the hospital on 5 July.  He was sent to a convalescent hospital in New York Harbor and several months later was paroled along with other wounded prisoners to Virginia.  He spent several months in hospitals in Richmond and Charlottesville and was finally mustered out in December 1864.⁸  He was twice married.   His granddaughter Lassie Munsey reported that his first wife died two weeks after giving birth to his son William in March of 1866.   He then married Bersheba Dillingham in Bedford County on 19 December 1868 and they’re enumerated in Lynchburg in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.   According to Lassie Munsey he assumed management of the family farm until his parents died.  He’s in the 1900 census of Victoria County, Texas with Bersheba and three children.  The census indicates that she bore nine children, six of whom were living in 1900.  He’s buried in the Nursery Cemetery in Victoria.   Children, from censuses, were William D. Anthony, Robert Anthony, Stonewall Jackson Anthony, Benton Anthony, Joseph Anthony, Minnie Anthony, and Albert T. Anthony.
2. Roddy S. Anthony (11 April 1841 – 21 March 1928)   He enlisted with his older brother in Company D of Turney’s 1^st Tennessee Regiment and served as a private and corporal until he was captured on 3 July 1863 at Gettysburg.   He was sent to Fort Delaware where he was interned for the duration of the war, finally released on 10 June 1865.⁹ (The prisoner of war records indicate that he was 5’7” in height, had grey eyes, a dark complexion and dark hair.)   The records also show that he was wounded in the knee at Chancellorsville two months before his capture.   He operated a grist mill near his father’s farm for most of his life.  He’s enumerated in 1870 next door to his parents, his occupation listed as millwright, with a wife named Ann E. and son William.   He married again to Martha A. B. Daniel (called Birdie and Martha in censuses) in Moore County on 13 March 1879.    They are enumerated in 1880 with his sons William and Oscar by the first wife.   The 1900 census indicates that his second wife bore two children, one of whom was living in 1900;  that child was listed as Lula M. in the household.   His death certificate (he died in Tullahoma, Coffee County, Tennessee) lists his parents, giving us another source for his mother’s name.  His children, from censuses and family records, were William Horace Anthony, Oscar Anthony, and Lula May Anthony.   (A fourth child, Clara, died in childhood.)
3. Nicholas A. Anthony (11 May 1843 – 7 July 1893)   See separate page.  James Anthony’s statement mentions that his brother Nicholas A. Anthony also volunteered in the CSA in 1861 but was discharged after a few months with a disability.
4. James Fredrick Anthony (9 March 1846 – 14 December 1927)  He appears in censuses, as a farmer, in Bedford County.   He married Nancy Frazier in Bedford County on 23 February 1873.   She was evidently the mother of his children, but must have died in the late 1880s as in 1900 and thereafter his wife’s name was Maude, whom he had married about 1890.¹⁰  His death certificate (he died in Bell Buckle, Bedford County, Tennessee) lists his parents, giving us another source for his mother’s name.  From censuses his children were Cora Lee Anthony, Robert D. Anthony, Peter G. Anthony, Ann Anthony, James W. Anthony, and Daisy J. Anthony.
5. Peter Laten Jasper Anthony (27 July 1848 – 1 April 1911)  He was in his father’s household through the 1870 census.   He appears to be the same person as the Peter Anthony enumerated in 1880 in Sharp County, Arkansas with a wife named Sallie and sons named John Anthony and James Anthony.   He returned to Tennessee and married Mattie A. Lakey in Bedford County on 13 November 1887.  They are in the 1900 census of Elk Township, Washita County, Oklahoma (she listed as “Maggie”) with children Otha E. Anthony, Alvis W. R. Anthony, and Leonard Anthony with son John Anthony next door.  He must have only been in Oklahoma a few months, as all the children were shown as born in Tennessee including Leonard who was less than a year old.   In the Washita County 1910 census he is listed with a wife named Emma, married for five years, and with the same three children.
6. Jacob Levi Allen Anthony (9 April 1851 – 26 January 1931)  He married Mattie F. Bruce on 27 October 1869 in nearby Lincoln County, and the couple are enumerated in 1880 next door to his parents in Lynchburg, Moore County with three children.   (His wife is consistently known as Martha in censuses.)  By 1900 he was in Slidell, Wise County, Texas.  That census indicates that Martha was the mother of nine children of whom seven were living.  In 1910 and 1920 he was enumerated in Roosevelt County, New Mexico and in 1930 they were listed in Clovis, Curry County, New Mexico living with their daughter Pauline’s family.   He died there the following year, his death certificate naming both parents.   Children from census records were:  William B. Anthony, Samuel A. Anthony, James Marvin Anthony, Joseph O. Anthony, Horace F. Anthony, Charles T. Anthony, and Pauline Anthony.

1. According to a letter from Lassie Munsey in 1972.  An online photograph of the gravestone is difficult to read. [↩]
2. The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, Gustavus W. Dyer and John Trotwood Moore (1922). [↩]
3. For instance, the death certificates of his sons James and Roddy list their mother as Elizabeth Pollock. Jacob’s lists her name as Sarah. [↩]
4. The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, Gustavus W. Dyer and John Trotwood Moore (1922). [↩]
5. For example, “Methodism in Pelham Valley; Pelham, Tennessee, 1813-2002”, Janelle Layne Coats reproduced online.  This gives his full name in several locations. [↩]
6. Ms. Munsey did not know how William Horace Anthony fit into the family at the time. [↩]
7. Bedford County, Tennessee, Bible Records, Volume I, Helen Crawford Marsh (Reprint by Southern Historical Press, 1985), p43. [↩]
8. NARA records.   He appears on several dozen muster rolls of the 1^st Tennessee, the hospitals, and on a Prisoner of War documents.  I would note for future researchers that his records are intermixed with those of his brother Roddy S. Anthony. [↩]
9. NARA records.  See note above. [↩]
10. The 1900 and 1910 censuses show they had been married for 10 and 20 years.  In 1900, the number for James was “24” crossed out and “10” written over it, suggesting that his first marriage occurred about 1874.  Maude was shown in 1900 and 1910 as the mother of one child, who was not living in 1900, so his children were evidently all from the first wife. [↩]