Clifford Mason Anthony son of Charles S. N. Anthony and Elizabeth Bukeley Anthony (nee Emerson) is a native of Washington, Tazewell County, Illinois.  His ancestors were among the most notable of the early New England colonists the names of the Anthonys, the Bulkeleys and the Emersons appearing on almost every page of colonial history while their descendants have ever since been prominent in almost every field of American enterprise and development.

Mr. Anthony received his education in the public and private schools of his native village and at a military school at Stamford, Connecticut.  Upon leaving school he found his first employment as a clerk with his elder brother, Charles E. Anthony who in company with Henry Denhart was carrying on a general mercantile and private banking business at Washington and in a short time he was given a clerkship in the banking department.  Later he became a partner with Messrs. Charles E. Anthony, Henry Denhart, Dr. R.B. M. Wilson and Charles A. Wilson in the founding of the bank of Chatsworth at Chatsworth, Illinois of which he was made the general manager.  While occupying that position he gave special attention to the loaning of money on farm mortgages which soon became an important feature in the business of the firm and was attended with a remarkable degree of success.  Three years later the firm sold out the bank at Chatsworth but transferred the mortgage loan department to Washington where Mr. Anthony became partner and cashier in the bank of Anthony & Denhart and manger of the loan department.  In 1885, Mr. Anthony disposed of his interest in the bank of Anthony & Denhart retaining to himself the farm loan branch of the business which under his personal supervision had grown largely and had become one of its most profitable features.  He then removed to Peoria, where a few months later, being joined by his brother Charles, the firm of C. E. & C. M. Anthony Investment Bankers was established at 424 Main Street where the business is still carried on.  In 1889 they opened a branch office at Omaha, Nebraska.  In 1891 the firm was incorporated under the name of the “Anthony Loan and Trust Company” with Clifford M. Anthony as Vice-President and General Manager and in 1898 Mr. Anthony became President a position which he still occupies.  In 1885 as a branch of the business “The Peoria Safe Deposit Company” was organized with C. M. Anthony as President.  The safety deposit vaults are of the most approved style and the company is doing a prosperous business.

In all these various enterprises Mr. C. M. Anthony has been a prime mover and it is to his business enterprise, energy and skill their great success is largely due.  As the outgrowth of a business founded thirty-six years ago, the Anthony Loan & Trust Company has become one of the largest and most prosperous financial institutions of its kind in the United States. Through it millions of dollars have been loaned upon farm and city property and its securities have been sold to all classes of investors such as savings banks, bankers, trustees of estates, churches, schools, and charitable institutions as well as to individuals.  The high character of its loans as safe investments will be appreciated from the well authenticated fact that in no instance has a client foreclosed a mortgage made by them nor lost a dollar on any of their securities; no title approved by them has ever been successfully attacked and no client has withdrawn his dealings through dissatisfaction.  These results have been attained through strictly conservative management and careful personal attention to the nature and character of all securities and investments.  Nearly all the stock of the company is owned by the men who founded the business and through whose management it has been built up to its present proportions.

Through prudent and conservative business methods strict attention to business and fair dealing in all his business transactions, Mr. Anthony has secured for himself a standing in public, social and private circles second to none in the city.  In politics he is a Republican; in religious faith, as were his parents, he is a Presbyterian.  He has attained unto the thirty-second degree in Masonry, is a member of the Creve Coeur Club, and other clubs of Peoria and of the Union League Club of Chicago.  His business has brought him into close relationship with leading business men and capitalists of the country, whose confidence he enjoys in a high degree.  Possessed of a find physique a genial temperament and affability of address Mr. Anthony makes his way easily and pleasantly with all classes of society.  On November 14, 1985 he was united in marriage with Miss Flora Thomas daughter of Dr. D. E. Thomas of Lacon, Illinois by whose companionship his life has been greatly blessed.  They have one son Emerson Thomas, born July 9, 1898 a promising lad in whom they take great delight and in whom they entertain great hopes for the future. 

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