Full Title: History of Chicago From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
Book Location: Google Books Year Published: 1884
Volume 1, ending in the year 1857, of a 3-volume set. One of the most referenced books on early Chicago history. I’ve always been a bit curious about Andreas’ background and only recently the following:
Biography of Alfred Theodore Andreas (1839-1900):
Died, on February 10, 1900, at New Rochelle, New York, where he was temporarily residing, Alfred Theodore Andreas, a member of this Commandery since October 4, 1882. He was born at Amity, Orange County, New York, May 29, 1839. Soon after that time his father removed to Chester, in the same county, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, and later, to Holly, Pennsylvania. Having prospered at the latter place, he went to New York City and became a successful merchant. Alfred received his education at Chester Academy. Being of an adventurous and self-reliant disposition, he came Westward, arriving in Dubuque, Iowa, in July, 1857. He soon found employment, first as a clerk, and afterwards as a school teacher, in which latter calling he continued for about three years. In the fall of 1860 he went with an Iowa acquaintance to St. Louis to sell a lot of horses, and while journeying through Missouri,
was first impressed with the evils of slavery. Having completed the business of the trip, he came across into Illinois, stopping near Sparta, Randolph County. Here he found employment during the winter of 1860 and 1861, and up to the beginning of the war. Concerning his employment at that time, he says: “At that time I was little more than a boy. Circumstances had drifted me into a little place in Southern Illinois, some sixteen miles from a railroad, where I was getting a small salary for presiding over the rising generation of the neighborhood. In other words, I was teaching school.” When the first call for seventy-five thousand troops was made, he made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the army. Later, on July 21, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company G, Twelfth Illinois Infantry, and the next day joined the regiment, then stationed at Cairo. He was with the regiment in its various camps at Cairo, Birdspoint and Paducah, in the summer of 1861, and in the latter part of the year at Smithland, Kentucky, where a detachment of the regiment was stationed. He was, by a singular act of good fortune, both for himself and the command, detailed for duty in the Commissary Department, for the discharge of which he had remarkable aptitude. At the first opportunity, May I, 1862, he was made Commissary Sergeant, a promotion already richly earned. In this position he soon became personally known to every officer and enlisted man in the regiment, numbering them all as his friends. No day was so stormy, no night so dark, no situation so hazardous as to deter him from doing all in his power to promote the comfort and serve the necessities of the men in the command to which he belonged. January 1, 1863, he was commis-
sioned First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the regiment, in which position his enlarged opportunities and
duties were met with the same zeal and fidelity that had won him his promotion. Always alert, the men of the regiment never were short in clothing and food, when it was possible for him to procure them. During the Atlanta Campaign he was made Commissary of Division, first on the Staff of General Sweeney and afterwards with General Corse, and held this position on the March to the Sea and through the Carolinas.Having discharged faithfully and acceptably every duty of a soldier, in every capacity in which it came to him, he was mustered out at Goldsboro, North Carolina, April 1, 1865. He returned home, and on May 31, 1865, was married at Davenport, Iowa, to Miss Sophia Lyter, who made his home happy, and shared his successes and reverses during their nearly thirty-five years of married life, and who with two daughters, Eulalia Lyter Andreas and Elouie Lyter Atherton, survives him.
Returning to civil life with his views broadened and his energies quickened and strengthened by his military ex-
perience, which had been educational to him, he at once sought a field for active enterprise. He had seen great things done and had helped to do them, and he could see no reason why he could not undertake and accomplish great enterprises, as well as other men. He was a pioneer in the county atlas and history work in the West, and in it achieved notable success. This brought him to and identified him with our city, and his history of Chicago will long remain a standard work upon which the student and the future historian must rely.Success soon crowned his efforts. He took at its flood the tide in the affairs of men which leads on to fortune, but that
same tide in its ebb bore him out on a tempestuous sea where the waves of financial disaster overwhelmed him. Though his energy never flagged and hope never deserted him, he was never able to retrieve his fortune. He envied no man’s good fortune, and in his many enterprises, successful and unsuccessful, we believe it can be truthfully said of him that he never intentionally wronged any man. Wearied with the struggle, he at last laid himself down to rest, and “After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well. ” He was a devoted member of the Loyal Legion and believed in it, not only as a fraternal organization, but as one of the reliable agencies through which the truth concerning the great struggle in which we were engaged shall be transmitted to the future.
Biography Source: Memorials of deceased companions of the Commandery of the state of Illinois, Military order of the loyal legion of the United States (1901)
