Biography of James Oliver Andrews

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an 
	illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium   
        of local biography, including biographical sketches of...prominent 
	old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota with a 
	review of their life work... Also a compendium of national biography."
        Publisher: Chicago, G.A. Ogle, 1898. Pages 228, 231.

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 

HON. JAMES OLIVER ANDREWS, one of the leading jurists of South Dakota, whose portrait appears 
on another page, was born near Casey, Clark county, Illinois, June 27, 1853, and is a son of John Redding 
and Deliah (Armstrong) Andrews. J. R. Andrews was a native of Virginia, whose father came from 
France about the close of the Revolutionary war, and became the owner of a large plantation in Virginia. 
John R. Andrews removed to Illinois in 1836, becoming a pioneer of Clark county. He was a farmer, and 
also engaged in blacksmithing and wagon-making. He took a great interest in the work of the Methodist 
church, and, while living in Illinois, began preaching. About 1856 he removed to Minnesota, and devoted 
considerable attention to organizing church societies in that state, and a part of the time in conjunction 
with the renowned Edward Eggleston. During this time Mr. Andrews supported his family by farming. He 
assisted in the organization of the societies at St. Peter, Traverse, Eagle Lake and other points. He also 
exerted his influence in the cause of abolition. He died at Mankato, Minnesota, in May, 1889, at the age of 
seventy-six years. Mrs. Delilah Andrews died near St. Peter, Minnesota, in December, 1883, at the age of 
sixty-three years. She was a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of Wesley and Belle Armstrong. The 
former was a shoemaker by occupation, and died in Coles county, Illinois. His wife passed away in 
Minnesota, at the age of ninety years.

The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of Minnesota, and finished his education in the high 
school of St. Peter, and the Normal school at Adel, Iowa. After completing his course in the Normal 
school he taught- several years in Iowa and Minnesota, in the meantime studying law, and subsequently 
took a course in law in the Iowa State university. Before completing this course he was admitted to the bar 
at Adel, Iowa, in 1878. He began practice in 1879 at Glenrose, Texas. The next year he located at 
Audubon, Iowa, and in the spring of 1883 came to Dakota, and engaged in practice at Brookings. In 1886 
he was elected state's attorney for Brookings county, and re-elected in 1888, but resigned this office in 
1889 to accept the office of the first judge of the Third judicial circuit of South Dakota, and has filled the 
position continuously since. Since coming to Dakota he has also been interested in agriculture to 
considerable extent, and is the owner of several farms in Brookings county.

Judge Andrews was united in marriage in the year 1877 to Miss Lizzie Dodge, a native of Galesburg, 
Illinois, daughter of Dr. Charles M. and Nancy J. (Rose) Dodge, now of Griswold, Iowa. To this congenial 
union have been born two children: Wallace E., who died August 20, 1,894, at the age of fourteen years; 
and Bonnie Florence. The family is identified with the Presbyterian church of Brookings, which the 
parents helped to organize in 1883. Judge Andrews is a member of the Masonic order at Brookings, and 
also of the A. O. U. W. Politically he is a Republican. While in Texas, he was appointed state's attorney of 
Summerville county, a fact which attests the respect in which he was held, he being the only outspoken 
Republican in the county appointed by the county commissioners. While serving in this capacity he had a 
number of interesting adventures. It frequently occurred that the bullets whizzed about the court room and 
uncomfortably near his head, although he never was the object of any violence. In the intervals of his 
professional duties, he has given considerable attention to literary matters and questions of political 
economy. He has prepared and published a number of articles treating on the growth of trusts and 
monopolies and their bearing on the future of the country and has also discussed these questions from the 
rostrum in a fair non-partisan spirit. He has collected a large miscellaneous library which he is preparing 
to make a public circulating library in connection with the South Dakota Agricultural College at 
Brookings, and has also one of the best congressional libraries west of the Mississippi river. In this project 
as in many others, Judge Andrews displays a far-seeing philanthropy, the value of which to rising 
generations and its influence upon the future destiny of the people. no one can foretell.