The Biographical Dictionary of America/Anderson, Joseph (senator)

ANDERSON, Joseph, senator, was born at White Marsh, Pa., Nov. 5, 1757. He acquired a good education and studied law. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was appointed an ensign in the New Jersey line. He was promoted captain and served in the battle of Monmouth; was with Sullivan in the Iroquois expedition, and was present at Valley Forge and in the siege of Yorktown, retiring at the close of the war with the brevet of major. He practised law in Delaware and was appointed by President Washington judge of the Territory South of the Ohio and assisted in drawing up the constitution of the new state of Tennessee. He was appointed U.S. senator on the expulsion of Senator Blount, and he took his seat, Nov. 13, 1797, completing Senator Blount's term March 3, 1799. He was a senator by election from March 4, 1799, to March 4, 1815, and president pro tempore of the senate on two occasions. He was comptroller of the treasury, the first to hold that office, 1815-'36. He died in Washington, D.C., April 17. 1837.