William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

John A. Andrew was the twenty-first Governor of Massachusetts since the adoption of the Constitution of the State in 1780. He was born at Windham, in the District of Maine, about fifteen miles from Portland, on the 31st of May, 1818. The family was of English origin, descending from Robert Andrew, of Rowley village, now Boxford, Essex County, Mass., who died there in 1668. He was connected with most of the ancient families of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. The grandmother of Governor Andrew was the grand-daughter of the brave Captain William Pickering, who commanded the Province Galley, in 1707, for the protection of the fisheries against the French and Indians; and the mother of her husband was Mary Higginson, a direct descendant of the Reverend Francis Higginson, the famous pastor of the first church in the colony. The grandfather of Governor Andrew was a silversmith in Salem, who removed to Windham, where he died. His son Jonathan was born in Salem, and lived there until manhood, when he also removed to Windham. There he married Miss Nancy G. Pierce, formerly preceptress of Fryeburg Academy, where Daniel Webster was once a teacher. These were the parents of Governor Andrew.

At an early age, he entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in the class of 1837. He then removed to Boston, and entered, as a law student, the office of Henry H. Fuller, Esq. Being admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1840, he commenced the practice of his profession, and adhered to it without interruption until his election as Governor in 1860, establishing in later years a reputation as an advocate second to no lawyer at that distinguished bar since the death of Rufus Choate. Attractive in personal appearance and bearing, with an excellent flow of language and variety of expression, and possessed of that sympathetic disposition which identifies an advocate in feeling and in action with the cause of his client, his merits were eminent as an advocate before juries; but the causes in connection with which his reputation as a lawyer had become chiefly known beyond legal circles, were those of arguments before Massachusetts courts, and the United-States courts for the district and circuit, on questions of political significance.