|
|
|
 1801 - 1875 (73 years)
-
| Name |
Joseph I. Andrews [2, 3] |
| Suffix |
Jr. |
| Born |
15 Nov 1801 |
New York  [3] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Reference Number |
3829 |
| Died |
13 Sep 1875 |
Yonkers, NY [3] |
| Person ID |
I3829 |
aojd |
| Last Modified |
11 Nov 2011 |
-
| Notes |
- (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011
The eldest son of Joseph and Sallie Salomon Andrews' twelve children, Joseph I. Andrews was born in New York in 1801. Soon after his birth, the family settled in Philadelphia.
Perhaps the earliest record in which he appears— and certainly the most colorful— comes from an 1825 letter of complaint to Zalegman Phillips, parnas of Congregation Mikveh Israel, the Philadelphia synagogue attended by the Andrews family. Abraham Israel, author of the letter and shammash of Mikveh Israel, complains that "the young Ladies of Mr. Andrews" had caused some trouble at the synagogue on Passover, refusing to take their proper seats. When the hapless shammash approached their brother Joseph to enlist his support, Israel was shocked by their brother's response. "He boldly told me," Israel reported, "I order you, never to go up Again to my sisters or I will Drag you down…he said he dare the Parnass or any one to ordre his Sisters out of the front seats he will spent a hundred dollars to See it, with Ohther Abusive Expression."
After living for some time in Charleston, Andrews settled in 1840 in Memphis, Tennessee, a city incorporated only fourteen years prior and which, at the time, was called home by just a handful of Jews. Andrews quickly established himself as a civic and business leader. He became a prominent banker and a merchant, dealing in cotton. He built Memphis's first three-story brick house, and for the 1847-48 term served as a city alderman.
That same year, his brother Samuel, who had followed him down to the upstart Tennessee town, passed away, compelling Andrews to acquire (for an "eagle," or ten-dollar gold coin) the land for a Jewish cemetery. It was the first in the state of Tennessee as well as the first formal Jewish institution in Memphis. In this, Andrews followed a familiar pattern: the first roots put down, the first sign of Jewish communal life in a new city, almost always took the form of a cemetery. Before synagogues or ritual baths were established, before shohets set up shop, a death would force the Jewish merchants who had traveled to a distant outpost in search of new opportunities to grapple with questions of Jewish practice and their intentions to remain in this place.
Two years after his brother's death, in 1849, Andrews married Miriam Nones, granddaughter of Revolutionary War soldier, Benjamin Nones. Together they had nine children. [4]
|
-
| Sources |
- [S285] .
- [S4] PG. 233 NONES (Reliability: 3).
- [S4] PG. 12 ANDREWS I (Reliability: 3).
- [S294] ANDREWS, JOSEPH I. (Reliability: 3).
|
|
| |
