Bloody Bill Anderson

[Texas Truth Teller]

There are several books about Capt. William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson, guerrilla or Missouri partisan ranger, who rode with William Clarke Quantrill during the Civil War. There is very little published information about his siblings. Josephine died when the Union jail collapsed. There is no credible information about Ellis or Charles Anderson.

Bloody Bill was the son of William C. and Martha Jane Thomason Anderson. Census records show that William T. Anderson was the oldest of their 7 children: William T., Ellis, James Monroe, Mary Ellen, Susan Josephine, Martha Jane, and Charles.

Jim Anderson and his brother William T. Anderson were Missouri partisan rangers. There are stories about Jim Anderson after the Civil War: he brought his surviving sisters, Mary Ellen and Martha Jane to Sherman, Texas, after the death of Bloody Bill in 1864; he married the widow of Bloody Bill Anderson and they resided in the house Bloody Bill built for her; he was killed on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin by George Shepherd.

There is indisputable proof that Jim Anderson’s sisters were in Sherman after the Civil War. A. V. Doak married Mollie E. Anderson 28 June 1865 in Grayson County, Texas. E. G. Douglass married Mattie G. Anderson 20 February 1867.

There is indisputable proof that Lieut. William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson married Miss Bush Smith 3 March 1864 in Grayson County, Texas. There is indisputable proof that James Anderson married Mary Erwin 21 October 1868 in Grayson County, Texas.

There is convincing evidence that Bush Smith and Mary Erwin were two different young women.

It is possible that Jim Anderson might have married Bloody Bill’s widow IF the 22 August 1866 marriage of J. M. Anderson and Malinda Anderson was the marriage of James Madison Anderson and Malinda Bush Smith. There is no evidence to support that assumption.

Nothing has been found regarding the house presumably built for Bush Smith Anderson.

Two independent records place the death of Jim Anderson in the spring of 1871, either April 14 or May 5. No other credible evidence has been found about the death of Jim Anderson.

[MissyS]

Thanks Texas Truth Teller
for posting the info on Bloody Bill Anderson, I wondered if Billy The Kid's pal Billy Wilson could have been related to Bloody Bill Anderson in some way? There's two stories about Billy Wilson one story is that he was born William Harrison Wilson on Oct. 30, in Arkansas, traveled through Missouri and Indian territory and eventually ending up in White Oaks buying a ranch and teaming up with The Kid , he then returned to Missouri and married and had a child and became Robert Levi Martin, died Sept 30, 1935, The other story is that he was born David Lawrence Anderson in Ohio on Nov, 1861, him and his family moved to south Texas around 1870, he then traveled to White Oaks NM , teamed up with the Kid, then eventually ending up becoming a sheriff of Terrell Tx. and getting shot by Ed Valentine on June 14,1918. The second story may really be the truth because Garrett was supposed to have met up with him in Texas and helped get him cleared, it would mean that Wilson was his alias name and Anderson being his real name. I just wonder if there's any family connection with the two?

[Texas Truth Teller]

You are welcome.
I am not familiar with any story about Billy Wilson, his birthplace, parents, siblings, family, or his activities, and cannot answer your question.

I can tell you that J. Frank Dalton claimed to be Jesse Woodson James; Brushy Bill Roberts claimed to be Billy the Kid; William Columbus Anderson claimed to be William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson; and Ora Woodman claimed to be Tommy Two Braids before he decided to become Uncle Kit Carson. None of them were who they claimed to be.

[MissyS]

I was wondering the George Shepherd that killed Jim Anderson on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin is this the same man that once claimed he killed Jesse James but no one believed him? I remember reading something about possibly the same person named Shepherd and Jesse James. I didn't want to get off the subject of Bloody Bill Anderson though.

[Texas Truth Teller]

There is very little credible information regarding the death of Jim Anderson. Information about his death date in the spring of 1871 is probably correct. Two different sources state that he died in the spring of 1871. One is a government record on file in the Grayson County courthouse, the appointment B. F. Christian as the administrator of J. M. Anderson's estate. The other record is information in the family Bible of Mattie Erwin Maxwell, sister-in-law of Jim Anderson.

There are stories, no proof, just hearsay, that Jim Anderson was killed on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin, or near the courthouse in Sherman.

It is a fact that Jim Anderson lived in Sherman for a few years after the death of Bloody Bill Anderson. It is a fact that Jim Anderson and his wife Mary Lucy Erwin Anderson were enumerated in Refugio County, Texas, in the 1870 census. Jim's occupation was reported as a teamster.

This census record indicates that Jim might have traveled through Austin and Dallas on this journey from Sherman to Refugio County in south Texas and back to Sherman near the Oklahoma border.

There are conflicting death dates of Jim Anderson's death in the spring of 1871.
There are conflicting stories of his place of death.
There are conflicting stories of his killer.
His place of burial is unknown.

[mikegolfpro]

I love to read all this interesting information! It is very interesting all the information that Texas Truth Teller has to enlighten us regarding all these different subjects. You must have a great library or have a lot of information stored. Love it!!!

[MissyS]

I found a link to the story I was refering about George Shepherd claiming he killed Jesse James, this man if he's the same man? anyway the article calls it LORE, so it or parts of it may not be true? or speculation, its an interesting read though
jessewjames.wordpress.com/tag/wild-west/

[Texas Truth Teller]

MissyS,
This is the source listed at the bottom of the article: http://www..com/letters.htm

"Jesse James in Texas" was the title of one of the three books written by the late Betty Dorsett Duke. She believed that her great-grandfather, James Lafayette Courtney, was Jesse Woodson James, and published 3 books claiming that he was Jesse Woodson James. Government records prove that he was bugle blower in the Union Army, and received a pension in his old age for that service. Not even close to serving under Quantrill as a guerrilla/Missouri partisan ranger. Duke insisted that the death of Jesse Woodson James in 1882 was a hoax. That's the con job offered by other impostors, John William James and J. Frank Dalton, who claimed they were Jesse Woodson James.

Do a Google search for a phrase in the text and see if you can find the source of the story that Betty copied.

J. Frank Dalton claimed Bob Ford killed Charlie Bigelow, who was misidentified as Jesse W. James.
Brushy Bill claimed Pat Garrett killed Billy Barlow, who was misidentified as Billy the Kid.

It's a clever idea for impostors to name a victim who doesn't exist. That makes it more difficult to prove that the impostors lied.

[Texas Truth Teller]

mikegolfpro,
There are stories, and there are facts. The challenge is to prove that a story is a fact. A story remains just a story unless it is proved to be a fact. Research sometimes will confirm that a story is a fact, and sometimes confirm a story is an exaggeration or untrue. Otherwise, it remains an unproven story.
The story that Jim Anderson brought his surviving sisters to Texas was confirmed by Grayson County marriage licenses.

There is an interesting connection between the Anderson, Erwin, and Smith Families that lived in Grayson County in the 1860s and 1870s.

Bill Anderson married Bush Smith (I think, but cannot prove, that her name was Malinda Smith.)
The parents of Malinda Smith were Burrell Perry Smith and Sarah Henderson.
Sarah Henderson, twice widowed, married Col. William Hugh Erwin.
William Hugh Erwin was the father of Mary Lucy Erwin, who married Jim Anderson.
After Col Erwin was killed, Sallie Erwin (Sarah Henderson Smith Erwin) was head of household in the 1879 census that included some of her children and some of Hugh Erwin's children.
After Jim Anderson was killed in 1871, Mary Lucy Erwin Anderson married Burrell Perry Smith Jr.
There is a story that Jim Anderson married Bill Anderson's widow. Paul Petersen said that Bush Smith and Mary Erwin were different names for one young woman. Mary Erwin was not quite 12 years old when Bill Anderson married Bush Smith. I do not believe Petersen is correct.
The story that Jim Anderson married his brother's widow is still a story, possible, neither proved nor disproved.


During the Civil War, Missouri Partisan Rangers, also known as guerrillas, wintered in north Texas in Grayson and Fannin counties. Brothers William T. and James Monroe Anderson, sons of Kentuckians William C. and Martha Jane Thomason Anderson, were among the guerrillas. Lt. William T. Anderson married Miss Bush Smith in Sherman 3 March 1864. Soon after the death of Bill Anderson 26 October 1864 in Ray County, Missouri, Jim Anderson brought his surviving sisters, Mary Ellen (Mollie) and Martha Jane (Mattie) from Missouri to Grayson County.

ANDERSONS
There were no known children of William T. Anderson and Bush Smith. Bush did imply that she was pregnant in a letter she wrote to Bill, found on his body after he was killed.
Jim Anderson and Mary Lucy Erwin were the parents of one child, Jimmie Maude Anderson, born 21 August 1871 in Sherman, died 6 September 1966 in Dallas. She was born after Jim was killed. She was raised by her aunt, Mattie Erwin Maxwell and T T Maxwell. She did not marry.

ERWINS
The Erwin family arrived in Grayson County in 1866 or 1867 according to an entry in the Bible of Mattie Erwin Maxwell, and their arrival in Texas was recorded as 1861. The parents were William Hugh Erwin and Lucy Moore. William H. Erwin was commissioned 1 September 1861 as a Colonel, 8th Division, Missouri State Guard, at Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri. Find A Grave memorial #83175056 shows that Lucy Erwin, wife of W. H. Erwin, died 21 September 1863, and is buried in McLennan County, First Street Cemetery. Mary Lucy Erwin married James Anderson 21 October 1868. William Hugh Erwin was killed 15 February 1869, only a year after he had married the widow Sarah "Sallie" Henderson Smith.

SMITHS
Sarah Ann Henderson and Burrell Perry Smith were in Red River County, Texas, in 1850. The family moved to Grayson County in 1852, and Burrell became the first mayor of Sherman. Burrell died 11 August 1859, and is buried in West Hill Cemetery. On 17 August 1859, Sarah H. Smith and James H. Tuttle filed a petition stating that Burrell P. Smith departed this Iife 15 August 1859. Four children are listed under the age of 14; Malinda A. Smith, B. P. Smith, Paulona Smith, and Virginia H. Smith. After the death of Burrell Perry Smith, Sarah Ann "Sallie" married 2nd, Isaac Hudson as Sarah H. Smith. After his death, she married 3rd, William Hugh Erwin as Sallie A. Hudson. After his death, she married 4th, Finis D. Piner in Fannin County as Sallie Erwin.