 Benjamin Andrus (1733-1822), Spanish Militia Soldier: Born into an established Protestant family in colonial Surry County, Virginia, Benjamin Andrews spent much of his youth tending crops and helping to care for livestock, but he yearned for adventure beyond the farm. The 25-year-old farmer found that adventure in 1758 when he married 18-year-old Marie Hargrave, a spirited woman who shared his desire to explore the frontier. Over the next two decades, they chased the Southern frontier with their ever-growing family and multiplying livestock. Benjamin gained a reputation for being a shrewd farmer and skillful woodsman. The family temporarily settled in 1768 in the backcountry along the rugged, inland borders of the Carolinas, where dangerous conditions tested their resolve on a regular basis. It was in this environment where the Andrews family transformed from traditional British colonial farmers into hardened, self-reliant pioneers. By the late 1770s, brutal, partisan warfare erupted between Loyalists and Patriots in the Carolinas. British regulars and Loyalists often raided suspected Patriot farms, leaving disaster in their wake. Concerned for his family’s safety, Benjamin set his sights southward. As the Andrews family soon learned, their experience living in the backcountry provided crucial training ground for their next adventure: crossing the Mississippi valley into Spanish territory. Around 1780, the family’s travel-worn wagons rolled onto the breathtaking plains of the Opelousas Post. For a colonial Virginia family, it must have felt like they had entered another world. Sprawling prairies as far as the eye could see were broken only by lazy, winding bayous that were dotted with live oaks draped in Spanish moss. The area was also filled with a bustling, diverse community comprising the French and Spanish, as well as indigenous people. In order to secure land from the Spanish government and to protect his wife and 11 children, Benjamin had to agree to convert to Catholicism. Because the French-speaking priests and Spanish military clerks were unfamiliar with English surnames, they wrote down his name as it sounded phonetically to them. Given his heavy Virginia accent, officials wrote his surname down as “Andrus.” With that official decree, the Andrews family was rebranded under the Spanish crown as the Andrus family, permanently altering their surname for generations to come. Soon after securing his family’s safety in Spanish-owned Louisiana, Benjamin enlisted as a soldier in the Spanish Militia Garrison at the Opelousas Post in support of the Patriot cause. Wielding a smoothbore musket and donning simple frontiersman attire, Benjamin was one of many who stood guard along the Louisiana interior and aided in maintaining vital supply lines. Through secret networks, Benjamin and his fellow soldiers funneled cattle, gunpowder, and silver up the Mississippi River to aid Patriots in their fight against British forces. By 1785, Benjamin’s name was officially recorded on the formal Spanish military rosters at Opelousas Post. Upon the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Benjamin turned his energy into carving out a prosperous homestead on the Louisiana prairies, all while his family also grew by three more children. By securing Spanish land grants and capitalizing on his wilderness skills, he established a sprawling cattle ranching operation. Over the next several decades, Benjamin expanded his holdings, successfully amassing hundreds of acres of prime land across multiple counties. Just months before the U.S. took control of the territory with the Louisiana Purchase, his 34-year-old son, Jean Baptiste Andrus, died suddenly from undocumented natural causes. Only eight years later, Marie died of natural causes, having lived to be 70 years old. The tough widower remained active and fiercely independent in the years leading up to his death, splitting his time among his children’s respective farms. He took solace in watching his grandchildren, including Sophie Andrus, who has been described as having inherited his resilient frontier spirit. By the time of his death in the early 1820s, the family patriarch left behind a vast empire of land, a thriving cattle ranch, and a pioneering family tree that would carry his name across the Sabine River into Texas. Author's note: Benjamin Andrus is my 6th great-grandfather through my paternal grandmother. This short biography is part of ongoing research into my ancestry that I've dubbed *Genealogy Chronicles* on X. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this biographical account. The information presented is based on historical records, genealogical research, and personal family testimonies available at the time of writing.
3 Comments
|
