Alexander Boyd Andrews

Alexander Boyd Andrews (July 23, 1841 – April 17, 1915) was a North Carolinian engineer and railroad executive. He was also a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War.

Family origins Through many generations, the ancestors of Alexander Boyd Andrews were North Carolinians. The first of the Andrews family to come into North Carolina was Thomas Andrews, who in 1726 patented 200 acres (81 ha) of land in the lower end of Bertie, and twelve years later purchased a tract on the north side of the Roanoke, then called the Morratuck River, adjoining the lands of George Williams, in the upper part of Bertie, near the Northampton line, and there made his home. Young William J. Andrews, after the death of his father, passed his youth at Woodbourne, and received his education there and at Palmyra, in Martin County, and located at Old Sparta, in Edgecombe, where he engaged in business as a merchant. At Shocco Springs, the fashionable resort of Eastern and Middle Carolina, he met Virginia Hawkins, a daughter of Colonel John D. Hawkins, and on May 9, 1833, they were married.

The eldest son of Philemon and Lucy Hawkins was Colonel John D. Hawkins, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and for 50 years a trustee of that institution. He was a lawyer and planter and prominent as a political leader. While engaged on this work, offers were made to him of other positions, which were declined, as he preferred to continue and finish the construction he had undertaken.

Civil War Being at home when the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861, he responded to the call of the State and enlisted as a Confederate soldier. This is the only instance recalled of a cavalry company successfully resisting and driving back a force of gunboats. On July 12 following this engagement, Lieutenant Andrews was promoted to the captaincy of his company, and with the regiment he participated in all the cavalry movements around Richmond and in the Maryland campaign, culminating in the capture of Harper's Ferry and ending at the battle of Sharpsburg. But Captain Andrews did not die, although long confined to the hospital. Anxious to be with his command, while still very weak and having hemorrhages, he sought the camp, but was compelled by his physical condition to return to the hospital. The war had swept away what little property that belonged to the family, and as several sisters and a younger brother were dependent on him, he realized the necessity of some immediate employment. When the necessity for his services in that connection had ceased, Andrews engaged in business at Henderson until July 1867, when he received a telegram from one of the directors of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad informing him that he had been chosen superintendent of that road, and asking if he would accept it. After a conference with the directors, he accepted the position, and was soon appointed general superintendent. The construction of this important line through the mountains was fraught with many troubles and difficulties, both political and financial, and necessitated a great deal of legislation for several years. Indeed, at one time the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company withdrew its support and financial backing, as the completion of the branch to Murphy seemed a penalty out of proportion to the benefit that would accrue from the construction of the road to the Tennessee line. But Andrews's management had been so satisfactory and his administrative ability was so highly appreciated that the receivers appointed him their general agent, and continued him in the management of the property until the Southern Railway Company, which was organized in June 1894, purchased all the lines formerly known as the Richmond and Danville Railroad; and at the first meeting of the directors of the new company he was elected second vice-president, and the next year he was promoted to the position of first vice-president; and since then he held the next to the highest official position in the Southern Railway Com- pany, which in 1905 operated nearly 9000 mi (14,484 km) of railroad. In 1905 he was president of the Southern Railway, Carolina division, which comprised what was at one time the old South Carolina Railroad, the Spartanburg, Union and Columbia, the Asheville and Spartanburg, the South Carolina and Georgia Extension Company, with its road from Camden to Marion, North Carolina; the North Carolina Midland, the High Point, Randleman, Asheboro and Southern, the Atlantic and Yadkin, the Elberton Air Line, the Hartwell, the Roswell, the Yadkin, the Charlottesville and Rapidan, the Carolina and Tennessee Southern, the Tennessee and Carolina Southern, the Ensley Southern and the Warrior Southern; all of which were independent railroad companies, although they were operated as a part of the Southern system. Under his management many of these roads were projected and constructed, while others have been greatly improved, and the whole system was, with a vast outlay and unremitting care, brought up to a higher state of efficiency; and so great was the development of traffic under his management that a large portion of the through line was in 1905 being laid in double track as being necessary for prompt transportation.

Andrews never sought political office, preferring to devote himself to the management of the railroad committed to his care, and building up the Southern country, and especially the undeveloped regions of Western North Carolina. He was one of the original organizers of the Soldiers' Home established at Raleigh, and took a great interest in its enlargement and management, and became president and chairman of the board of directors. In 1899, Andrews proposed the name for the town of Dillsboro, North Carolina.

Andrews was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was long connected with the Church of the Good Shepherd at Raleigh, and toward its support and maintenance he was a liberal contributor. Не was also a leading spirit in the Capital Club at Raleigh, and did much to maintain that social organization at the State capital.

Personal life

On September 15, 1869, Andrews was united in marriage to Miss Julia Martha Johnston, a daughter of Colonel William and Mrs. Anna E. Johnston of Charlotte; and to them were born five children. Alexander Boyd Andrews Jr. was a member of the North Carolina Bar. Jane Hawkins, their only daughter, was married to a prominent cotton exporter of Montgomery, Alabama, William M. Marks. John H. Andrews was in the traffic department of the railway service. Graham H. Andrews began active life in the Citizens' National Bank of Raleigh.