From A
Biographical History of Central Kansas, Vol. I, p. 128
published by The Lewis Publishing Co, Chicago & New York, 1902
ANDREW B. MARTIN
For many years Andrew Black Martin was one of the intelligent and popular citizens and reliable business men of Rice county, and his loss to the community was widely felt. He was a representative of that class of American citizens who while advancing their indivudual interests also promote the general good. While carrying on business for himself he contributed to commercial activity, whereon depends the growth and development of every community. His name was always an active factor in church circles, and wherever he was known he was highly esteemed, for he possessed those qualities which in every land and in every clime command respect and admiration.
Mr Martin was born in Kirkwood, Warren county, Illinois, June 3, 1853, and is a son of James P Martin, whose birth occurred in the east and he was of Scotch-Irish lineage. The members of the family perhaps were never distinguished for prominence in political or military life, but they belonged to that sturdy class of citizens whose reliability and devotion to the public good formed the bulwark and strength of the nation. The mother of our subject was Miss Maxey Talcott. She had received a good education and was a lady of intelligence, whose innate culture was manifest in her home and in her influence over her children. She died at Des Moines, Iowa, and Mr Martin, the father, passed away in Warren county, Illinois.
In the state of his nativity Andrew Black Martin spent his youth, and his preliminary education acquired in the common schools was supplemented by collegiate training in Monmouth College, of Monmouth, Illinois, an institution under the auspices of the United Presbyterian church. In connection with his brother, John Martin, he afterward established the Galesburg Business College, which became one of the best known and popular schools for business training in the state. This they conducted successfully for some time, but at length our subject abandoned educational work and turned his attention to commercial pursuits. In the enterprise he was connected also with the first of S K Martin & Company, lumber dealers of Chicago, where they carried on operations until 1885, when Mr Martin became identified with the interests of Rice county, establishing his home in Lyons. Here he opened a lumber yard and was soon in command of a good trade, for he carried a complete line of all kinds of lumber, and in his business dealings he was so reliable and straightforward that those who once became his customers remained as his regular patrons. He possessed excellent and executive ability, keen discernment and strong sagacity, and these qualities rendered him well worthy of the splendid success which crowned his efforts.
On the 17th of January, 1882, Mr Martin was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Newman, who was born in Burlington, Iowa, but was reared and educated in Galesburg, Illinois, a daughter of Isaac and Salina (Patrick) Newman. Her father was a representative of a prominent southern family and her mother was born in Michigan, her ancestors having removed from New York to the Wolverine state. Unto Mr and Mrs Martin were born three children: A Newman, now a young man of eighteen years; A B, a lad of ten summers; and Ruth Maxim, a bright little girl of five years. After the father’s death Mrs Martin removed with her children to a farm three miles southwest of Lyons, where they have a fine modern residence, tastefully furnished in a manner that indicates the refinement and culture of the inmates. Both Mr and Mrs Martin held membership in the Presbyterian church, of which he was a very active and earnest worker. He served as leader of the choir and was also Sunday-school superintendent. His love of children was one of his most marked characteristics, and his superior manhood was indicated by the free confidence given him by the little ones. There is an intuition which seems to teach a child where its confidence can be placed, and this quality is more reliable than the judgment of our mature years. It was the most easy matter for Mr martin to win the love of children on account of the deep love which he bore for them and the interest which he took in their welfare. He was a man of strong temperance principles, and by precept and example promoted the cause. Socially he was identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in his political views he was a Republican. He found his greatest happiness in the midst of his family and counted no sacrifice too great that would promote the welfare of his wife and children. In business life he sustained an unassailable reputation, and in social and home relations he was the soul of honor, so that he left to his family not only a handsome competence, the rich reward of his labors through many years but also the priceless heritage of an untarnished name. His death occurred February 13, 1900.