Biographical Details
Date of Birth: February 28, 1815
Birth Location: Middlesex County, NJ, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1836
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: November 23, 1854
Death Location: Council Bluffs, IA, USA
Andrew Jackson Thickston
Life Experience
Born in New Jersey, Andrew Jackson Thickston was educated by his elder brother until he entered college. He graduated from Indiana College (now IU) in 1836. He served as a prosecuting attorney in Indiana for some time. In 1849, he stopped practicing law and entered the ministry, traveling among Indiana towns. He preached to congregations large and small, even to a congregation of one, as Wylie told this story, still remembered thirty years after his death, “On a certain occasion, a storm raging while he was on his way to the church, he found but one man present when he entered the pulpit. He took for his text the words of Nathan to David. ‘Thou art the man.’ His audience was attentive. He did not meet his hearer for some years; he found him a converted man, who told him that his first serious thoughts were occasioned by the sermon Mr. Thickston had addressed to himself.” Thickston died in 1854 in Iowa, while on his way to Nebraska.
Marriage and Family
Thickston married Mary Gaines Rousseau in 1839. At the time of his death in 1854, he left behind his wife and six young children (son Edmund was just two years old). He has several living descendants.
Alternate Spellings
Other original contemporary sources within Thickston's lifetime show alternate spelling(s) of Thickstun and Thixton for the last name. The Thickston spelling was chosen because it appears in multiple IU sources such as the Official List of Graduates. We recognize this choice may not be the most popular or give the greatest number of matches for online search engines, but it reflects Indiana University's usage of his name at the time of his attendance and graduation.
References
- Wylie
- myheritage.com
- rootsweb.com
- werelate.org/wiki/
- Madison Daily Courier 10/17/1849
- Indiana State Sentinel 10/24/1851