Kenneth Augustus Anderson, was born on 2 March 1899 in Worcester. He was the son of Bettie Sawyer from Beaufort, NC and Joseph Edward Anderson of Worcester.

He married Mary F. Schuyler in Worcester, MA in 1919. Mary was the daughter of Rose Bates of Vergennes, VT and Raymond Schuyler from NY. Rose was the daughter of Frances Mason and Stephen Bates. The Schuylers left Vergennes with many other Black families from Vermont and settled in Worcester. Mary and Kenneth had at least 3 children and lived until at least 1940 with Mary’s father, Raymond Schuyler on John St in Worcester. Kenneth worked as a floorman during this time according to the 1930 and 1940 censuses.

Kenneth was the great-grandson of William Anderson who escaped slavery and settled in NY before joining his brother, Isaac Mason, in Worcester. You may remember that Isaac was the author of a slave memoir published in Worcester in 1893. Kenneth and his sister Hattie each married second cousins from the Mason family line. Lafayette Mason was a Black land owner in upstate NY and some of his daughters married free Black men in neighboring Vermont including Jonathan Storms, Stephen Bates, and Eugene Storms. These families all eventually settled in Worcester.

The Lafayette Mason family, the Sawyer family, the Storms, the Andersons, and the Bates all have their own unique family histories to explore. All of these families lived lives that most of us can not imagine and I hope that we never see again.