My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in The History of Williamson County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

* * * *

REV. MARK LYELL ANDREWS was born on the 2d day of December, 1796, between Lexington and Richmond, Ky. His parents were born and reared in the State of Virginia, married and moved to Kentucky in the latter part of the year 1795. In 1810 the father of our subject, George Andrews, moved to Williamson County, Tenn. May 16, 1816, our subject married Eliza Dean, and in the fall of 1819 he became impressed religiously and sought for and found pardon, after which he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, November, 1819, and was licensed as a local preacher in September, 1822. In 1826 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Soule, and in 1836 was ordained an elder, at Columbia, by Bishop Roberts. In the economy of the church, there being no provision made to support her local ministers, he was forced to look to other sources for employment to support a large and growing family. In March, 1840, he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Williamson County, and re-elected thereafter from time to time until the year 1874, having held the office continuously for a period of 34 years. This is a long time to hold an office, especially in a country notoriously fond of rotation in public life. In 1874, his health declining at that time, he withdrew from any further wish to serve the public, and retired to private life. He died at his residence two miles west of Franklin, November 16, 1878, at the age of eighty-one. He was a blessing to the dying, and stood by the bedside of more dying men and women than most any one else in our State history. He was an example to the living and a benefactor to his race. The world is vastly better off from his having lived in it, and is indeed poorer in Christian charity now that he has gone to his reward.

* * * *

This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in The History of Williamson County, Tennessee published in 1887 by Goodspeed.  The History of Williamson County was included within The History of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Beford and Marshall Counties of Tennessee

View additional Williamson County, Tennessee family biographies here

View a historic 1888 map of Williamson County, Tennessee

View family biographies for other counties and states here

Use the links at the top right of this page to search or browse thousands of other family biographies.