William Andrew

Portrait and Biographical Album of Peoria County (1890)
Transcribed by Danni Hopkins!

William Andrew, Postmaster of Chase Post-office, Millbrook Township, occupies a leading position in his community and is identified both with the agricultural and mercantile interests of this county. Mr. Andrew is a native of England and was born in Devonshire, June 29, 1828. His parents were Thomas and Eliza (Jones) Andrew, who were likewise of English birth and antecedents. When he was ten years old he accompanied his father and mother to America, taking passage at Liverpool on a sailing-vessel, and after a voyage of about eight weeks landed in the city of New York. They went directly from there to Erie County, Ohio, and settled among its pioneers, and they bore an honorable part in its development. Our subject passed the remaining years of his boyhood and the opening years of his manhood in that part of the country. He had but little schooling as the educational advantages were then somewhat limited, but in the parental home good principles were early instilled into his mind and he acquired industrious habits, which have been of great use to him in his after career.

In 1855, when in the prime and vigor of life, he came to this county to take advantage of its wonderful agricultural resources, and for some three years was engaged in farming as a renter in Millbrook Township. At the expiration of that time he bought a farm of his own in this township and was actively engaged in its improvement until the fall of 1888, and in the meantime had developed his property, comprising one hundred and twenty acres of very productive land, into one of the best regulated and best tilled farms in all the region around, placing upon it a good class of buildings, and supplying it with ample machinery for all the necessary operations in conducting farming. When he abandoned the cultivation of the soil he established himself in the mercantile business at Chase, and now has here a well-appointed and conveniently arranged store, well stocked with general merchandise, and the substantial building in which he carries on his trade is of ample dimensions, being 20x40 feet. He has built up quite an extensive trade, partly on account of his honorable dealings, as his customers have come to learn that that they may place implicit reliance on his word and judgment. He is gifted with a good faculty of business, is methodical in his work, and makes it a point to do with others as he would be done by. In connection with his mercantile business, he has charge of the post-office at Chase, receiving his appointment as Postmaster July 16, 1889, and he is found to be the right man in the right place, his genial and friendly manner making him well liked by the public in general.

The marriage of our subject with Mary Morse, a native of England, took place in Ohio in 1853, and has been a felicitous and happy one, which has been blessed to them by the birth of four children, of whom two are living: Mary A., wife of Abraham Rarick, of Millbrook Township; and Eva, wife of H. W. Crone, of Millbrook Township. The greatest sorrow of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew’s wedded life has been in the death of their daughter, Alice, and their son, William.

Mr. Andrew is a self made man in the best sense of the term, and has been successful in a career in which he started out with no adventitious aids of fortune and name, and has gained a high position among the solid, reputable men of this community. He is broad and sensible in his views and in politics is inclined to be independent, though favoring the Republican party. He is a member in high standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Elmore, is serving as Trustee of the same, and carries his religion into the every day affairs of life.

Pages 316-317