From History of Texas Published in 1896

W. A. Andrews, an agriculturist of energy and ability, has been identified with the interests of Hood county since December, 1878. His birth occurred in Monroe county, Georgia, on the 21st of December, 1825, and he is a son of Sterling and Elizabeth (Williams) Andrews, natives of Virginia, the former of Welsh and the latter of Scotch descent. The maternal grandfather came from Scotland to the New World with General Braddock's army, and was so well pleased with the country that he determined to make it his home. The grandparents on both sides removed to North Carolina at an early day, where the parents of our subject grew to maturity and were married. There the father engaged in merchandising, and served as sheriff for many years. After his removal to Georgia in 1823, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. While on a business trip to North Carolina, he died there at the age of sixty-five years, and his wife passed away in Alabama at the age of seventy-five years.

In their family of ten children, five sons and five daughters, our subject is the ninth in order of birth. Upon the home farm he was reared and received a limited education in the primitive log schoolhouse of that early day, but he supplemented the knowledge there acquired by study at home, so that he is now a well informed man. He remained with his mother until twenty-three years of age. In 1850 he began merchandising in Whitesville, Harris county, Georgia, which he successfully followed until the breaking out of the Civil War. In March, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-sixth Georgia Volunteer Infantry, which company he had organized, and was unanimously elected its captain. He was in many engagements, participating in the bombardment of Charleston, the battles of Jacksonville, Mississippi, and Chickamauga, where he was wounded in the right leg, which disabled him for further active duty, but he remained on post duty until the close of the war. After his return home he continued to engage in merchandising from 1866 until 1874.

On the 22nd of October, 1854, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Andrews and Miss S.F. Cotton, a daughter of Rev. J.G. Cotton. She was a native of Georgia, and by her marriage became the mother of the following children: Clara Belle; Willie A., who died in Georgia in October 1885; John Lee, of Hood county; James B., who died in Kaufman, Texas in 1882; Payton C., of New Mexico; R.E., of California; Albert S., who died February 11, 1896 in Arizona; George F.; N.M.; and Homer at home; and Fanny Lizzie, who completes the family. The death of the mother occurred on the 9th of December, 1894, when she had attained the age of fifty-six years.

In 1878 Mr. Andrews came to Texas, where he has since engaged in agricultural pursuits, and has a fine farm of two hundred and fifty-seven acres in the Brazos valley, four miles east of Granbury, which is under a high state of cultivation and well-improved with good buildings. He is an active and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as was also his worthy wife, and for forty-five years has been connected with the Masonic order, in which he has taken nine degrees. In politics he adheres closely to the principles of the Democratic Party.

SOURCE

History of Texas, 1896, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co.

 ~ Web Page by Jo Ann Hopper ~

1999 HOOD COUNTY TEXAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY