Charles C. Andrews

CHARLES C. ANDREWS has been identified with Northwestern Kansas more than forty years, and has been successively a homesteader, a pioneer farmer, a merchant, banker and man of many and varied interests in and around Norcatur. He is president of the Citizens State Bank of Norcatur and is mayor of the city.

Mr. Andrews was born in Washington County, Ohio, December 12, 1864. His paternal ancestors came from England to Massachusetts in colonial times, and some of them fought as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Andrews' father, Samuel Andrews, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1829. He grew up and married there, was a farmer in that and in Washington County, and founded the family in Western Kansas in October, 1876, when he homesteaded a quarter section of land in Decatur County. He also took a timber claim of 160 acres. The farm was his home for twenty years. After selling the homestead he moved on to his tree claim and lived there until his death in 1901. He owned 320 acres at the time of his death, and his life in every relationship was successful and honorable. He was an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics a republican. When the Civil war broke out Samuel Andrews enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixty-Third Infantry, was in all the battles, marches and experiences of that regiment until he was mustered out and received his honorable discharge. Mr. Andrews married Harriet Lyons. She was a native of Ohio, and died in Washington County, that state, in 1866, when most of her children were young. Her oldest child, Elvira, died in Decatur County, Kansas, in 1900, the wife of George Fissler, a farmer in Decatur County. L. M. Andrews is a retired farmer at Norcatur. W. H. Andrews, for a time a farmer, is now a resident of Oberlin, Kansas. H. L. Andrews is a capitalist at Farmington, New Mexico. D. S. Andrews is a capitalist living at Pasadena, California. Charles C. Andrews was the youngest of the family and was not two years old when his mother died.

He was twelve years old when his father homesteaded in Western Kansas, and from that time to the age of twenty-one he lived in the parental home. He finished the eighth grade of the rural schools in Decatur, took high school work and gained much of his education by self study. He acquired more than speaking acquaintance with such high school subjects as botany, philosophy and higher arithmetic and was liberally educated.

Upon reaching his majority Mr. Andrews homesteaded 160 acres and lived on that fifteen years, farming it energetically and profitably. He sold out and in 1906 moved to Norcatur, where he and his brother D. S. Andrews conducted a general store for two years. Since then he has been in the wholesale produce business and that with many other interests, including his Norcatur farm, occupy his time and energies. His modern home in Norcatur was built in 1906 and he also owns a store building on Main Street and n number of blocks in the town.

Mr. Andrews helped organize the Citizens State Bank of Norcatur in 1908, and has been its president from the start. It is one of the prosperous banks of Northwestern Kansas, capitalized at $15,000, has surplus of $3,000, and has deposits of $115,000. Mr. Andrews is its president, L. D. Reid is vice president and Dick Wilson is cashier.

Mr. Andrews has filled a number of township and local offices. He was elected mayor of Norcatur in 1915, re-elected in 1917, and is giving a careful and conscientious administration of municipal affairs. He is a republican and is prominent in church work as a Methodist. He is superintendent of his Sunday school and president of the Board of Trustees and treasurer of the Board of Stewards of his church at Norcatur.

The marriage of Mr. Andrews was a notable event in pioneer society in Decatur County. It was celebrated March 4, 1885, the same day Grover Cleveland was first inaugurated president. The wedding occurred in a sod church at Lyle in Decatur County. The bride was Esther Shick, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Plank) Shick. Her father came from Iowa and was a farmer, now deceased. The mother is living with Mr. and Mrs. Andrews. The latter have four children: Willard S., Jestina, Benjamin and Glenn C. Willard S. attended the university at Mason City, Iowa, is a practical electrician, and operates a battery service station at Oberlin, Kansas. The daughter, Jestina, graduated from the State Agricultural College at Manhattan in the course of domestic science, taught four years in the Oberlin High School, held a state life teacher's certificate and passed away December 11, 1918. The son Benjamin graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan in electrical engineering and is now an electrician employed by the General Electric Company in their works at Schenectady, New York. The youngest of the family, Glenn C., is a soldier and was a sergeant in the commissary department of the army and saw much active service in France.

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