Andrews, Wells

Born: 1787-11-21 Hartford, Connecticut

Died: 1867-02-14 Washington, Illinois

Wells Andrews was a clergyman, teacher, and professor. Born to a well-established New England family, he graduated Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1812. He taught at Bedford Academy in Bedford, Pennsylvania for two years before entering Princeton Theological Seminary in 1814. He graduated Princeton in 1816, then served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church at Alexandria, Virginia from 1817-27. He married Nancy Harper on September 14, 1819. They had nine children together. In 1827, Andrews moved to Hartford, Ohio and served as pastor of a Presbyterian church there for ten years. In 1837, he received a professorship at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he taught until moving to Washington, Illinois in 1843 to become pastor of a Presbyterian church there. In 1844, he moved to Tremont, Illinois, where he served as pastor of Tremont Congregational Church and farmed for eleven years. By 1850, Andrews owned $5,000 in real estate. He returned to Washington, Illinois in 1855, preaching at the Washington Presbyterian Church regularly from 1855-59, then occasionally from 1863 until his death.

Frank H. Andrews, William Andrews of Hartford, Conn. and His Descendants in the Direct Line to Asa Andrews of Hartland, Conn. and Hartford, Ohio (Washington, IL: Tazewell County Reporter, 1938), 69; Ben C. Allensworth, History of Tazewell County (Chicago: Munsell, 1905), 826; Portrait and Biographical Record of Tazewell and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1894), 263; Henry L. Kiner, History of Henry County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1910), 2:261; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Tremont, Tazewell County, IL, 51; Gravestone, Old Washington Cemetery, Washington, IL.