Spruce Township – William L. Andrews, farmer, section 16, was born in Polk County, Missouri, March 23, 1845. R.G. Andrews, his father, is a native of Tennessee, and was born in Maury County, January 10, 1816, while his mother, whose maiden name was Amanda Cates, came originally from North Carolina. The former moved to Missouri in 1840, and settled in Polk County. William L. passed his boyhood days on a farm and attending the common schools.
He enlisted in August, 1862, in the Confederate service, in the Eighth Missouri Cavalry, Col. Jeff Thompson’s Regiment, and served until the close of the war. He participated in several important engagements, among which were the fights at Lone Jack, Missouri, Helena and Prairie Grove, Arkansas. After the war, Mr. Andrews returned to Saline County and engaged in farming. In the fall of 1869 he came to Bates County, where he has since been occupied in farming and stock raising. In 1878 he moved upon his present farm, which contains eighty acres, with sixty acres improved and twenty acres of timber, a fair house and a young orchard. He was here married, January 20, 1878, to Miss Charity Logan, a daughter of E.W. Logan. She was born in Perry County, Illinois, and was there raised and educated. They have two children: Carrie E., born April 11, 1880, and Leonora E., born December 4, 1881. Mrs. Andrews is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. (History of Bates County, Missouri, 1883)