Of the many notable characters who have lived in Marion, Anderson P. Corder, could certainly be claimed as one of them. Notes taken from the Nannie Gray Parks files at the Williamson County Historical Society says of him, “Many stories are told about Anderson P. Corder; John Gray and Carey E. Wiley knew him well. They said he was a very tall man and dressed well. He wore a “Stove Pipe” hat, a Prince Albert coat with a fancy vest draped with a large gold watch chain. He was considered a wit and smart in a way.
He loafed around Dr. R.M. Hundley’s drug store and the courthouse, always followed by his black cur dog “Monty.” In time, Monty died. Mr. Corder called out the band dressed in red coats and caps. Monty was laid in a box and placed in a two-horse wagon. The band marched behind, playing as they went to the Cunningham woods to bury Monty.
One day, Mr. Corder sent a boy to his home to tell his wife, Vina, that a very important man was coming to dinner. His wife hurried around and prepared a fine dinner, but when Mr. Corder came home and she asked him where the important man was, he replied. “I am the man. I wanted a good dinner.”
There was an old man named Atkins around town who could make rhymes. One day Mr. Corder met him on the square in Marion and insisted that Mr. Atkins make him a rhyme, but he refused. After some argument, Corder promised to buy him a drink for a rhyme. After they had been in the grocery and had their drinks Corder said he was ready to hear the rhyme and Mr. Atkins said, “You can search through Hell and around the border and never find a meaner man than A.P. Corder.
Mr. Corder often visited the home of Henry Gray who had a two year old daughter named Alice. Mr. Corder would ride her on his foot and sing “My Darling Nellie Gray.”
A.P. Corder did not get along with his wife, Vina, very well. He said he would not marry again unless the woman had a husband who had been hung so she could not brag about him.
A.P. Corder was a very likable man when sober, but very insulting at times when he was drinking. Some of his relatives lived around Marion. His sister, Matilda, married Frank Jennings. Their grandson lived on College Street in Marion.
Anderson Paine Corder was born in Kentucky in early 1811.
Milo Erwin, county historian, wrote in 1876, “Anderson P. Corder was known as a school teacher in Franklin County. He came to Marion in 1840 and commenced to practice law. He was County Clerk in 1843 and figured in politics until 1874 and was the most singular politician ever in the county. Sometimes he would rise in public estimation until he could have been elected to any office then sink beneath public contempt. He was in the State Senate and held the position of Master in Chancery. He was not a profound thinker, but a witty, fluent speaker. From 1840 to 1850, he held almost despotic political influence. No man thought of running for office without his consent but in later years he lived a hard, intemperate life and not only lost his influence but lost that respect which ought to attend a man of gray hairs. There are many interesting incidents in the life of this man that would be interesting lo our people, had I room to give them. During the war he was an outspoken southern sympathizer but when invasion threatened the state, he drew his sword in defense.”
In 1832, for the purpose of participating in the war with the Indians, known as the Black Hawk War, which resulted in the defeat of the Indians and their removal by treaty to lands beyond the Mississippi River, there were three companies raised and organized in this county, then including the Territory of Williamson County. On that occasion, all of which joined the Second Illinois Regiment were mustered into the service of the United States for ninety days under the call of the governor of the State, made on the 15th of May, 1832. Of those companies, the second company consisted of Captain William J. Stephenson; Lieutenant Tramel Ewing and Sergeants, John P. Maddox, Anderson P. Corder, Henry Hays and John T. Knox. Unlike most local volunteers, Corder’s company may have gotten there quick enough to see some action.
On September 22, 1836, Anderson married Lavina Adams in Franklin County. I have encountered two names used for his wife. In all of the census records she is called Lavina or Vina, but her marriage records used both Lavina and the name Serena which creeps into records periodically, but is assumed by me to be an error.
After Marion was platted in 1839, he moved to Marion to practice law. In the 1840 federal census, Corder was 30 years old, located in Williamson County and teaching in a school house that had 68 students.
From 1843 to 1849, Corder served as Williamson County Clerk, just prior to the service of John H. White’s term as clerk, excluding time spent while serving in the Mexican/American War.
When the call came for troops to fight in Mexico in 1846, A.P. Corder and E.N. Phillips took a few men from this county and entered the service at Caledonia, Illinois. He joined Captain H.L. Webb’s company in the Second Regiment Company B. On the battlefield at Buena Vista on February 26, 1847, Corder was promoted to the rank of captain from a private for his reckless bravery.
In the 1850 census, the Corder family was living in Williamson County. Anderson and Levina were both 40 years of age and they had the only three children that they would have. Their children were then Philip J. Corder 11, Mary J. Corder 8 and John A. Corder age 4. Corder’s occupation was listed as lawyer and his real estate value was noted at $100.
On July 25, 1851, A.P. Corder purchased 40 acres of land in Section 28, Township 8, Range 4 of Jackson County.
In 1852-56, Corder served in the State Senate during the 18th and 19th General Assemblies. After his time in Springfield, Corder moved to Carbondale, where he later chaired a secessionist meeting.
In the 1860 census, the family was living in Jackson County, Township 9, Range 1, not the same property he had purchased 9 years earlier. Anderson still listed his occupation as lawyer. They claimed no real estate value but did claim a personal estate of $150. The couple was now at age 50 and all three children were present in the home.
When James D. Pulley was arrested for sedition in Carbondale in June, 1861, Corder rode to Marion to warn that John A. Logan and Willis Allen were next, precipitating the incident at Goodall’s Bridge.
A.P. Corder lived in Carbondale at the beginning of the Civil War. On the 14th day of August, 1862, he, along with A.D. Duff, W.J. Allen, John Clemison, A.C. Nelson and Samuel H. Bundy were arrested by U.S. soldiers and taken to Cairo where they were kept a few weeks and then were sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington for nearly three months and then turned loose without a trial. They were charged with making rebel speeches and belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle and stirring up sedition and treason.
They claimed that they had committed no overt act against the Government, or any other crime, and that while they thought the Knights of the Golden Circle was a good and loyal society, they did not belong to it. They denied making rebel speeches, but insisted that they were for peace. They were arrested on affidavits filed in the Provost Marshal’s offices, in Cairo, charging them with these offenses, and the writ of habeas corpus being suspended by the President; of course they could not get a trial, although they repeatedly demanded one.
After their release, Judge Duff published on the 15th day of December, 1862, an address to the people of South Illinois, “Relative to his arrest by the Abolition Despotism.” It was a caustic and scathing letter. A regular diabolical slayer of marshals, detectives, police, etc. He claimed that they were arrested in order that the Republicans could carry the fall election. Their arrests had ‘but little effect on the county.
The people grew more turbulent, and personal difficulties became more frequent. At this time the Golden Circle was in the most flourishing condition. The design was formed in this Order of raising a regiment for the Union Army, for the purpose of repelling the imputation of disloyalty laid on some of its members.
This caused a reaction from Robert M. Hundley and James D. Pulley who raised the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Regiment Illinois Volunteers as a face saving method; unfortunately the 128th turned out to be a disgraceful unit and was later disbanded.
Tax assessments, from the years 1862 and 1866, place him as a practicing lawyer in Marion. Notes found in Goodspeed’s history indicate that Corder was appointed Franklin County State’s Attorney Pro Tem (temporary) in March, 1863 and Hon. Andrew D. Duff was judge. He then attained the position permanently and served in 1863-64. The position of States Attorney for Williamson County wasn’t created until the constitution of 1870.
One son served as a captain for the South. Corder was quoted that if younger, he would have left to fight himself. One of his descendants of today noted that Anderson Corder got into trouble with the federal government because he dared to send clothes and other items to one of his sons who had gone south to fight for the Confederate cause.
After the Civil War, Corder held the position of Master in Chancery for Williamson County.
Mary Jane Corder, daughter of A.P. Corder, married Ferdinand “Purd” Henry on August 6, 1866 in Williamson County, Illinois. Mr. Henry carried the mail from Marion to Carbondale in the 1860’s. The Henry family moved to California in 1869 and either took Anderson’s wife, Vina, and their son John with them, or they followed shortly thereafter, leaving Anderson in Marion.
The 1870 census revealed that Anderson was a 60 year old lawyer living with the family of a blacksmith named George and Louisa Winters in Township 9, Range 3 which was Marion Precinct that included the area on both sides of Marion proper. Vina and son John were then living with the oldest daughter Mary Henry in California. 1860 to 1870 would have been the time frame referenced in the stories about A.P. when he was living in Marion earlier in this post.
Around 1874, Anderson left Marion to rejoin his family in Ukiah, California.
The Marion Monitor reported on March 20, 1879, “We are in receipt of an obituary notice recording the death at Ukiah, California in May 1877 of Mrs. Mary J. Henry, wife of Purd Henry. Mrs. Henry was born in Williamson County, Illinois and her childhood was passed in Marion. As Miss Mary J. Corder, she was known to a majority of our readers, but a few of the residents of Williamson County for the past fifteen or twenty years are unacquainted with Anderson Corder, a daughter of whom Mrs. Henry was.
The notice goes on to say, “Mrs. Henry was born in Williamson County. Illinois March 7, 1841. Her childhood was passed in Marion. She graduated with credit to herself and family at Saint Vincent Chapel, Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky in the year 1863. She was married August 6, 1866 and came to California in November 1869. She leaves a sorrowing husband and five little ones to mourn her loss; the oldest child is a girl but ten years old. An aged father and mother also mourn the child they hoped would be the comfort of their last hours and for this they gave up old friends and old associations and came in their life’s decline to make their home among strangers.
Anderson P. Corder was to lose another child three years later. The Marion Monitor reported on February 12, 1880 the following from the Murphysboro Era, “We have received papers containing the account of the killing of John Corder, about 30 years old, son of Captain A.P. Corder, for many years a resident of Carbondale and Marion, who was killed in an affray (a fight) at the Ukiah House at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California.
He was shot Monday by Sam Logan. Corder was about to enter the hotel just as Logan stepped out of Wal Hogan’s saloon. Seeing Logan, Corder drew a pistol, shot at him and missed. Logan then ran up to him and fired a fatal shot. Corder was found in the hotel seated on the floor with a cocked pistol in his hand. Officer Jamison wrenched it from his hand and Corder said, “Take it, he has killed me.” He died on the floor about thirty minutes later. Corder had been hunting Logan with a shotgun around town all morning. His father, Anderson P. Corder, was State Senator from the Williamson County District from 1856-1858. He went to California six years ago, is a Justice of Peace in Ukiah and a prominent member of the Methodist Church South.
Anderson died on December 27, 1891, his obituary from the local paper is as follows,
“Anderson P. Corder, an old resident of this place (Ukiah, CA.), died at the County (Mendocino) Hospital last Saturday night. The deceased was a native of Kentucky and was 80 years of age. His life had been quite an eventful one. He was a classmate of President Lincoln, and practiced law at the bar of Illinois with Stephen A. Douglass, John A. Logan, and other celebrities, and was an intimate friend of Col. E.D. Baker.
He fought in the Black Hawk War, and was an officer of an Illinois regiment in the Mexican War. He came to Ukiah about 18 years ago. He had a law office here for a few years, but his practice was very limited and was confined to the justice courts. He became a charge upon the county a number of years ago, and has since that time made the County Farm his home.
He leaves an aged widow. The funeral of the deceased took place from St. John’s M.E. Church on Tuesday morning. In addition to a number of his old friends and acquaintances, the members of the bar here turned out in a body and accompanied his remains to the grave.”
Corder’s wife Lavina passed away years later on January 20, 1901. Her obit from the local paper is as follows,
“Mrs. Sovina (Lavina) Corder, long a resident of this city (Ukiah), died on the 20th of January, at the ripe age of 90 years, 10 months, and 7 days. As far as known she left no near relatives here. The funeral took place Monday from the Baptist Church, Rev. Joe Waldrop conducting the service. The cause of death was old age.”
So far, I have found nothing on the remaining son, Philip Corder.
Sam’s Notes: I don’t believe that the following information is relevant to Anderson Corder’s son, Philip, but I wanted to post it as a note and make it available to any Corder genealogy researchers.
A memorial marker at Aikman Cemetery states there were originally 179 interments located here including five Civil War Confederate soldiers. One of the soldiers was Phillip Thompson Corder, 7th Tennessee Calvary, C.S.A., who was murdered January 1, 1869 by Sam Cover in Marion, Illinois.
On the first day of January, 1869, Samuel Cover shot and killed Phillip Thompson Corder in Marion. The difficulty arose about a difficulty between Cover and a brother of Corder’s. Corder was striking at Cover with brass knuckles, when he was shot. Cover was then put in jail to keep him from being mobbed. He was afterwards tried and acquitted on the ground of self-defense.
(Extracted from Illinois Regional Archives Depository; Findagrave.com; Nannie Gray Parks Notes at the Williamson County Historical Society; History of Williamson County Illinois by Milo Erwin; Events in Egypt, Newspaper Excerpts by Helen Sutt Lind; Federal Census Records; Ukiah newspaper obituaries; Goodspeed’s History of Williamson County; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 12/10/2013, based on a published story in “Footprints”, Volume 5, #4, 2002 by Helen Lind)