Biography - Andrew Martin
ANDREW J. MARTIN was born in Johnson County February 26, 1827, and now resides in Cache Township, of the same county. He is a son of Obadiah and Nancy (Carter) Martin, the former of whom was born in Tennessee and the latter in South Carolina. Obadiah Martin came to Illinois at an early day, and settled in Johnson County on Government land. He married soon afterward, and it was on this farm that Andrew J. was born and reared. Obadiah died when Andrew J. was ten years old, and he being the only child had to remain at home to aid in supporting his mother, working at what he could find to do. His father had not purchased any land, and the young boy had a difficult part to perform, and his education was, of course, neglected. What little schooling he was enabled to secure was in a log schoolhouse of the most primitive kind, without any floor or windows. It had logs stretched on stringers for seats, and a fire in the middle of the house or room, around which the children gathered. In the wild woods at that time deer ran in droves like sheep, and wolves, wild turkeys and wild beasts of all kinds were plentiful.
After his mother's death, when our subject was twenty-one years of age, he purchased land in Cache Township, Johnson County, and located on section 7, where he now resides. He has sixty-four acres, for which he gave $1.25 per acre. He was married June 30, 1850, to Arminda Osborne, a native of Johnson County, whose parents were from North Carolina. She died in September, 1881, and he was married again, June 26, 1882, to Mrs. Sarah Melissa (Mulkey) Carter, who was born in Franklin County, Ill., October 17, 1836, and whose parents were natives of Tennessee. Mr. Martin has one child living by his first wife, viz: John, who lives near the old home and, like his father, follows farming. Mr. Martin and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Republican in politics. He enlisted August 13, 1862, at Vienna, in Company C, One Hundred and Twentieth Illinois Infantry, and was in the battle of Guntown and in that at East Port, on the Tennessee River. He was an active and faithful soldier all through the war, and was honorably discharged at Memphis, Tenn., September 10, 1865.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 539-540.
