University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MD Anderson was created by an act of the Texas Legislature in 1941, making it a part of The University of Texas System and was established by the National Cancer Act of 1971. Today it is one of 49 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. The cancer center provided care for more than 137,000 patients in Fiscal Year 2017 and employs more than 20,000 people.
Jordan Anderson
Anderson was born around 1825 somewhere in Tennessee. By the age of seven or eight, he was sold as a slave to General Paulding Anderson of Big Spring in Wilson County, Tennessee, and subsequently passed to the general's son Patrick Henry Anderson, probably as a personal servant and playmate as the two were of similar age. In 1848, Jordan Anderson married Amanda (Mandy) McGregor. The two eventually would have 11 children together. In 1864, Union Army soldiers camped on the Anderson plantation and freed Jordan Anderson. He then may have worked at the Cumberland Military Hospital in Nashville before eventually settling in Dayton, Ohio, moving with the help of the surgeon in charge of the hospital, Dr. Clarke McDermont. There Anderson found work as a servant, janitor, coachman, or hostler, until 1894, when he became a sexton, probably at the Wesleyan Methodist Church; a position he held until his death. His employer, Valentine Winters, was father-in-law to McDermont.