REV. ANDREW J. RENDLEMAN. A successful and influential factor in
connection with educational affairs in his native state and at the present
time the incumbent of the office of superintendent of the public schools of
Jackson county, Andrew Jackson Rendleman is a scion of one of the sterling
pioneer families of Illinois and here, in addition to his specially
effective work in the educational field, he has served with marked zeal and
earnestness in the ministry of the Free Baptist church, in which he is a
regularly ordained clergyman. He is one of the honored and popular citizens
of Murphysboro, the judicial center and metropolis of Jackson county, and is
well known throughout southern Illinois, where he has a wide circle of loyal
and valued friends. The influence of Mr. Rendleman has been potent and
benignant in all the relations of life, and his work has been in the
furtherance of those things which make for the higher ideals of human
existence.
Andrew J. Rendleman was born on a farm in Williamson
county, Illinois, on the 3d of March, 1867, and is a son of Harris and
Elizabeth (Knight) Rendleman, who continued to reside in this state until
their death, the father having devoted virtually his entire active career to
agricultural pursuits and having been a man whose inflexible integrity and
generous attributes of character gained and retained to him the unqualified
confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He whose name initiates this review
passed his boyhood days amid the scenes and under the invigorating
discipline of the home farm and his early educational advantages were those
afforded in the district and graded schools of his native county. In
preparing himself for the profession in which he has gained such distinctive
prestige and success he attended the Southern Illinois Normal University, at
Carbondale. Mr. Rendleman initiated his pedagogic labors when twenty years
of age, and his first experience as a teacher was gained in the district
schools of his native county, after which he continued his successful work
in Perry and Jackson counties. He organized the graded school at
Willisville, Perry county, of which he was the first principal, and later
became principal of the schools at Campbell Hill. Thereafter he was
principal of the East Side school in Murphysboro for four years; he next
served as principal of the East Side school at DuQuoin, Perry county, after
which he returned to Jackson county.
In the fall of 1910 Mr.
Rendleman was elected to his present important office, in which his
administration has amply justified the popular choice. In his election to
the position of superintendent of schools for Jackson county he was the
nominee on the Democratic ticket and overcame an adverse majority of fully
one thousand votes,-a fact which offers emphatic testimony to his popularity
in the county and the public appreciation of his scholastic and executive
ability. Since assuming the duties of his office he has accomplished most
admirable results in the systematizing and unifying of the work of the
public schools in his jurisdiction, and has done much to raise their
standard still higher. Mr. Rendleman is a valued member of the Southern
Illinois Teachers' Association and also the Illinois State Teachers
Association, in the deliberations and work of both of which he has taken a
deep interest and active part. At the last (1911) state teachers' meeting he
was appointed a member of a committee of five to draft a bill for state
uniformity of text-books to be presented to the next legislature for
enactment.
A man of fine intellectuality and perfervid earnestness as
a worker in behalf of his fellow men, Mr. Rendleman has been a most zealous
and valued factor in the ministry of the Free Baptist church, in which he
was ordained in the year 1895. As a public speaker he is forceful and
convincing and draws upon the rich resources of a well disciplined mind. In
the ministry, on- the educational platform and as a speaker before the
various fraternal orders with which he is affiliated he has gained a high
reputation and his services are much in demand along these various lines. In
the general work of his church he has served as a member of the missionary
board and other important subsidiary boards and committees, besides which he
has been a frequent delegate to the general conferences of the church. In
politics he is admirably fortified in his convictions and gives a staunch
allegiance to the Democratic party. In the Masonic fraternity he has served
as chaplain of his lodge; in the Knights of Pythias he has held the office
of primate; and in the Modern Woodmen of America he served one year as
consul of the camp at Marion, Williamson county, and three years as the
incumbent of the same office in the camp at Murphysboro. He is a frequent
speaker before the organizations of the Knights of Pythias and Modern
Woodmen of America and has represented the same in the state conventions in
Illinois. He is also affiliated with the Tribe of Ben Hur.
On the
28th of April, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rendleman to Miss
Margaret Monroe, who was born in Jackson county, this state, a
representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of southern Illinois.
She was a resident of Jackson county at the time of her marriage, and she
has been a devoted wife and true helpmeet, and an earnest worker in the
church,-a popular factor in refined social activities and a loving and
ambitious mother. Mrs. Rendleman is a daughter of George W. and Sarah J.
(Willis) Monroe, who are now both deceased. Mr. Monroe was born in the state
of Tennessee, whence he came to Illinois when a young man. He became one of
the representative agriculturists and influential citizens of Jackson
county, and did well his part in the furtherance of civic and industrial
progress. It was his to render valiant service as a soldier of the Union in
the Civil war. He enlisted in Company K, Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer
Cavalry, and the history of this gallant command virtually constitutes the
record of his long and meritorious career as a soldier of the republic whose
integrity he assisted in preserving. His service continued during
practically the entire period of the war and he was with Sherman on the ever
memorable march from Atlanta to the sea and thence northward through the
Carolinas, while it was also his distinction to participate in the Grand
Review of the victorious troops in the city of Washington. He escaped
serious wounds during the four years of service but was captured by the
enemy and confined for some time in Andersonville prison. He was mustered
out in the city of Springfield, capital of Illinois, and duly received his
honorable discharge. His continued interest in his old comrades was shown in
later years by his retaining membership in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. and Mrs. Rendleman became the parents of five children, all of whom
are living except William Bert, who died in 1898, at the age of nine years.
Lillian May, who is a successful and popular teacher in the public schools
of Jackson county and who is well upholding the prestige of the family name
as a representative of the pedagogic profession, was afforded excellent
educational advantages, including a course in the Southern Illinois Normal
University. Homer Lee, eldest of the three surviving sons, completed the
curriculum of the high school in Murphysboro and is now employed as salesman
in a mercantile establishment in this city. Charles Edgar is a member of the
class of 1913 in the Murphysboro high school; and Andrew Jackson, Jr., is a
student in the public schools.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 598-600.