In 1782 he and his family were living in New Jersey, but two years later were living in Delaware.  By the year 1790 he had moved his family to Surry County, North Carolina, where he was listed in the first Federal Census reports for that county as being the head of a family of nine males and three females.  Here the family lived until 1795 when they moved to Buncombe (now Madison) County and settled on a nice farm on the Paint Fork of Little Ivy River to become one of the pioneers to settle in this area.

     His home was built of strong and sturdy hand-hewn logs built to withstand the ravages of time and the elements, and as a protective refuge against the possible attach of the Cherokee Indians who were not entirely subdued at the time and whose well-worn path into their nation ran nearby.  This old home was one and a half stories high with gun slots cut through the logs at intervals along the walls of the upper floor as a protection against the Indians.

     James Anderson was said to have been one of the first Methodists to settle west of the Blue Ridge.  He was a successful farmer and stock raiser and by the time of his death which occured sometime between 1810 and 1814, owned 700 acres of land.

     The known children of James and his good wife Pattie or Lydia Mallett Anderson were:
     George Washington Anderson who moved away sometime after 1817;      Captain Robert Anderson, officer in the State militia, constable, and member of the House of Representatives from Buncombe County in 1821.  He died in 1843 in Yancey (now Madison) County, N.C. and in October of that year his sons William G. and James M. Anderson of Cherokee County, Georgia, were administrators of his estate.

     James Anderson Jr. was born in New Jersey. His will dated April 6, 1834 was the first recorded in Yancey County, NC.  He married Elizabeth Frances Summers (Summerline/Sumner) of South Carolina and left a large family in Madison County, NC.

     Nathan Anderson was born April 19, 1782 in New Jersey.  He married Surry County, NC on November 3, 1807 to Sarah Burch.  He was a Justice of the Peace, Constable and deputy sheriff of Buncombe County.  He died sometime after 1870 in Madison County, NC.  His will dated March 15, 1853, is on file in that county.  He left a large family among whom was Rev. Woodson Anderson, one of the founders of Mars Hill College.

     Robert Anderson was a colonel in the North Carolina State Militia.  He removed with his father to Buncombe County, NC, circa 1794.  In 1817, he sold his properties on Big and Little Ivy Rivers and removed to Tennessee.

     His only child identified thus far is a daughter, Nancy Elizabeth Anderson, born 1796 and died 1885.  On Oct 20, 1814, she married Nimrod Buckner I, born 1795 and died 1879, son of Jesse and Mary Tatum Buckner.

     Here William or "Billy" grew into manhood and in 1806 married Martha Elkins, born September 8, 1787 in Washington County, NC (now Unicoi Co., Tenn.) daughter of Gabriel and Stacy (Dillard) Elkins.

      William Anderson inherited his father's place on Paint Fork and lived there until 1817 when he purchased his brother George's lands on Big Ivy River.  This farm was adjoining present-day Barnardsville, NC, to the west and extending to the west of Whittemore Branch and to the north of Big Ivy River. His home, a large two-story log house, stood 300 yards northeast of the confluence of Whittemore Branch and Big Ivy, upon a rise overlooking the present Town of Barnardsville, not then in existence.

     In 1852 "Billy" Anderson donated the land and other advancements for the erection of a church - "for the purpose and no other, for a place of public worship for all Christian denominations of people with the conditions that the Baptist have the preference of their set or monthly days of worship and also that the Protestants of the Methodists denomination have their set days of worship without molestation."

     William Anderson was a successful farmer and stock raiser and his home was always open to his friends.  Many religious, social and civic meetings were held there.
     He died in July 1856 and his wife, Martha, died in 1877.  They are buried in a small family cemetery on the southwest corner of his home farm, about fifty yards east of the old church property on the Whittemore Branch.

     William and Martha (Elkins) were the parents of:

     Stacy Eliza Anderson, b. 1808, married Edmund Deweese and moved to Cherokee County, NC;
     William Anderson Jr., drowned in Big Ivy;
     Mary Pauline Anderson, b. 1813, married Thomas Foster Dillingham;
     Nancy Anderson, born January 15, 1813, married William Gardner of Yancey Co., NC, on March 22, 1832.
     Colonel Albert Galliton Anderson, born June 3, 1817;
     Darkus (Dorcas) Anderson, born February 15, 1820, died May 11, 1898, married George E. Wilson (September 7, 1807 - February 6, 1887).
     Martha Anderson, born 1825, married Benjamin F. West, (b. 1820);
     Catherine Eliza Anderson, born November 24, 1829, married April 21, 1853 to Garrett Deweese Carter.  He was born March 9, 1823, and killed in the Battle of Petersburg, VA, on September 29, 1864.  She married secondly, Benjamin F. West, widower of her sister Martha.
     Sarah Anderson married John Ramsey, and secondly on October 25, 1852, Major John Daugherty, and thirdly, Thomas F. Dillingham;
     Susan Anderson married Rev. Joseph Eller.

Births
George Washington Anderson,  29 December 1820
Sarah Ann Telitha Ray,  9 April 1830

R.E.K. Anderson,  26 March 1848
James Washington Anderson,  16 July 1849
J.B. Anderson,  18 March 1851
Margaret Louisa Matilda Anderson,  24 March 1853
Jackson Greenwood Anderson,  4 May 1854
William Henry Anderson,  12 April 1856
Marcena Lucinda Anderson,  1 April 1858

W.B. Holcombe,  20 September 1860
Harriet Holcombe,  19 June 1869

Deaths
Jessee Rhey,  9 January 1855
George Washington Anderson,  30 July 1858
James Welington Anderson,  24 November 1853
Polly Penland,  23 October 1858
Harriet Holcombe,  1 September 1874