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GEORGE W. ANDREWS.
One of the venerable but still vigorous and active members of the bar of Jackson county is Judge George Washington Andrews, who established his home in Murphysboro and here engaged in the practice of his profession nearly half a century ago. The intervening years have been marked by large and distinguished accomplishment along the line of his profession, of which he has long stood as one of the leading representatives in Southern Illinois, and he has also been called upon to serve in various offices of distinctive public trust, the while he has guided his course upon the highest plane of integrity and honor and thus has well merited the unequivocal confidence and esteem in which he is held in the prosperous community that has so
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long been his home and in which he is a citizen of prominence and influence.
Judge Andrews takes a due measure of pride in reverting to the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity and he is a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born at Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio, now one of the most beautiful cities of the state, and the date of his nativity was February 22, 1842, so that he was consistently given the name of the great American on whose birthday anniversary he was ushered into the world. He is a son of Samuel A. and Margaret (Ramsey) Andrews, who passed the closing years of their lives at Dayton, the father having been actively identified with agricultural pursuits during virtually his entire career and having been a man of the highest character, so that he ever commanded a secure place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow men, the while his forceful individuality and broad mentality made him a local leader in thought and action. Judge Andrews is indebted to the common schools of his native state for his early education and he gained his due quota of youthful experience in connection with the work of the home farm. He continued his studies in a well ordered academy at Fairfield, Ohio, and in the Presbyterian Institute at Hayesville, that state, after which he entered with characteristic vigor and earnestness upon the work of preparing himself for the profession of his choice. He was matriculated in the law department of the celebrated University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he completed the prescribed curriculum and was graduated as a member of the class of 1865. After thus receiving his well earned degree of Bachelor of Laws Judge Andrews came to Illinois and sought for an eligible field of endeavor. He remained for a brief interval at Jonesboro and in May, 1865, he established his permanent home at Murphysboro, the judicial center of Jackson county, where he has continued to reside during the long intervening period and where he has been most successful in the general practice of his profession, to which he still continues to give close attention. He has been identified with much important litigation in the courts of this section of the state and is now worthy of designation as the dean of his profession in Jackson county, where he commands the highest vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of his confreres and also the general public.
In addition to the work of his profession Judge Andrews has given most loyal and effective service in various offices of public order. He was master in chancery for Jackson county for eleven years and served on the bench of the county court for five years. For two years he held the office of postmaster of Murphysboro and he served one term as mayor of the city, as well as one term as city ttorney, - preferments which well indicate the high regard in which he is held in his home community, in the furtherance of whose civic and material progress and prosperity he has ever shown the deepest interest. For four years Judge Andrews was connected with the government department of the interior in the capacity of inspector of surveyor generals and land offices, and his service in this office covered the entire United States. His career has been one of signal activity and usefulness and has been crowned with well earned honors. He is president of the Jackson County Bar Association, is a staunch and effective advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is affiliated with local organizations of the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he has long been a zealous member of the Presbyterian church, of which his cherished and devoted wife likewise was a most earnest adherent for many years prior to her demise.
On the 19th of December, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of
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Judge Andrews to Miss Jennie Slocum, of Norwich, New York, in which state she was born and reared, and this loved and gracious companion and helpmeet remained by his side for nearly forty years, she having been summoned to the life eternal on the 25th of January, 1905, and her name and memory being revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence. Mrs. Andrews is survived by two children: Myra M., who is the wife of Harry O. Ozburn, cashier of the Citizens State & Savings Bank of Murphysboro; and Eugene S., who is agent for the American Company at Murphysboro. He married Miss Ethel McClay, of Carbondale, this state.
Living in a community in which his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances and enjoying the well earned rewards of many years of earnest endeavor, Judge Andrews may well felicitate himself upon the smiling plenty and fair, prosperous days which mark the course of his life during the period in which he looks back upon a record of conscientious application and faithful service as one of the world's productive workers, and no citizen is more worthy of special and cordial recognition in this history of Southern Illinois.