Samuel English Anderson was known in Montgomery County for his red hair and the temper that went with it. He did once kill a man, but the court found that it was in self-defense.

He was shot by a farm worker whom he had fired the day before for smoking in a tobacco barn. Hamp says this may have been self-defense, because he threatened to kill the workers for smoking in the barn. Hamp also says old-time rumors say they mashed his head with a fence post. Beth heard he was cut to death with machetes in the field, but Hamp says they wouldn't be cutting tobacco in November, only stripping it in the barn.