William John Anderson Jr. (February 14, 1876 – August 28, 1959)[1] was an American politician and farmer who served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1945 to 1949.
[4] Returning to Mount Hermon, Anderson became manager of the school's laundry and held this position from 1900 to 1920, supervising generations of young student helpers, including Reader's Digest co-founder DeWitt Wallace.
There he became a prosperous farmer who cultivated an orchard totaling 3,500 apple trees, mainly MacIntosh and Northern Spy cultivars, by the early 1930s.
[4] He spoke at Quebec Horticultural Society meetings in Montreal in 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, and 1944, delivering his speeches first in English and then in French, a language he had learned from his mother.
[5] In addition to his farming, Anderson served as chaplain and secretary of the state Masonic society, whose lodges adopted a statewide policy of racial integration through a unanimous vote.
[7] The newspapers generally praised him, with a 1945 Burlington Free Press editorial calling him "typical of the state without regard to his race or the color of his skin.
Senator Warren Austin, a fellow apple enthusiast to whom Anderson had provided cuttings from the Diamond A. Orchard, to combat racial discrimination in the military.
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson assured Senator Austin that "Mr. Anderson's suggestion has been given very careful study," pointing to the establishment of a ROTC program at Tuskegee University to increase the number of Black officers.