John Butterworth Anderson, M. D., a successful physician and highly esteemed citizen of Chetopa, Labette county, is a native of La Porte county, Indiana, where he was born March 8, 1848. His father, Robert Anderson, was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, and was a son of John Anderson, who came from Scotland and settled in southern Indiana at an early period in the history of that state. He had previously resided for a short time in Kentucky. In later years he removed to northern Indiana, where he died. Dr. Anderson's mother bore the maiden name of Mary Butterworth. She was born in Ohio, and was the daughter of Benjamin Butterworth, a Virginian by birth, and of English ancestry. Dr. Anderson is the only survivor of three children, having had a sister, Judith, and a brother, William. He was reared on the farm, his father being a farmer by occupation. He attended the district schools in Indiana, then an academy at Madison, and completed his literary education at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill. In 1872 he graduated in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the following year came to Kansas, located at Chetopa, and began the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Labette County Medical Society, of the Kansas State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association. He is also a post-graduate of the New York Polyclinic.

In 1873 Dr. Anderson was united in marriage with Miss Adda Bell, born in Cincinnati, Ohio. The children are: Robert Bell, an optician, residing and practicing his profession in Cuba, where his brother, John Bodly Anderson, is associated with him in the jewelry business. Their daughters are Marian, who is at home; Adda E., a kindergarten teacher in Colorado, and Charlotte, a prominent teacher of music. To their children they gave splendid educational advantages, and the family is highly esteemed.

Politically Dr. Anderson is an ardent Republican. He has never sought political preferment, yet he has served his city as councilman and on the school board. Fraternally he is a Master Mason, and in church faith is a Quaker. Professionally Dr. Anderson stands in the first rank of his profession. As a citizen he is numbered among the public spirited, the progressive and representative.