Andrew Jackson Wimberley was born on July 4, 1867, at his parents' home on Walnut Creek in Blanco County, Texas. He was the eighth of the ten known children of Pleasant Wimberley and Amanda Julian Jackson Wimberley. When Andrew was about seven years old, Pleasant Wimberley moved his wife and his surviving eight children from Blanco County to what was then called Winters' Mill in Hays County, Texas. He purchased a sawmill and gristmill there and operated it with the help of his children until his death in 1919. Eventually, the community around the mill became known as Wimberley, Texas.

Andrew grew up in Wimberley. He grieved with the rest of the family when Melissa, the youngest of his siblings, died in 1876 at the age of four. He enjoyed the companionship of his four older brothers--Joe, Zachary, Ike, Hickman, and Pleas--and of his younger sister Lidie. He also enjoyed the ruggedness and isolation of the valley of Wimberley. He grew up hunting and fishing and helping with the operation of the mill.

As a teenager, Andrew met and fell in love with a beautiful girl named Fanny B. Tanner who lived in nearby San Marcos, Texas. She was the daughter of Samuel "Sam" T. Tanner and his wife Lucinda Ellen "Ellen" Neal Tanner. When he was 18 and she was 17, Andrew and Fanny were married on June 20, 1886. Their marriage vows were witnessed by Andrew's brother Pleasant and Pleasant's fiancee Fannie Lee Smith and by Fanny B.'s older brother Alonzo M. Tanner.

Andrew and Fanny were soon blessed with a growing family. The couple had 15 children including two--Carrie Myrtle and O. B.--who died as infants. Their other 13 children--Samuel Alvin, Mellie Mae, Amanda Letress, Walter Edwin, Lydia Ellen, Jesse Jackson, Mabel Linnie, Clara Fanny, Bessie Alma, Pezzie Amelia, Lewis Sol, Raymon Andrew, and Vesper Bill--were a delight in their youth and a comfort to them as they grew older.

Andrew farmed most of his adult life. Although they lived primarily in Hays County, he and Fanny moved their family to Blanco, Guadalupe, Runnels and San Saba Counties in order to find better land to farm. While Andrew farmed and sold cotton seed, Fanny cared for their home and family.

Andrew and Fanny's elder years were spent at their home on Route 2 in San Marcos, Texas. Andrew died at the age of 68 on May 25, 1936, in San Marcos, Hays County. The cause of his death was liver and gall bladder cancer which had been diagnosed six months earlier. He was buried in Wimberley Cemetery in Wimberley where his parents and three of his siblings--Joe, Zachary, and Melissa--were buried (his sister Lidie was buried there in 1954). His belowed Fanny lived for 16 years after Andrew's death. In 1952 she was buried beside him in Wimberley Cemetery.



Comment made by William Burrel Cochran and prepared by Terry Lee Cochran:

"John Martin Cochran and James Hezekiah 'Hez' Cochran were the sons of Levi Newton Cochran, Sr., and Margaret "Maggie" Jane Brown Cochran. John and Hez married two of Andrew J. Wimberley's daughters Mellie Mae and Amanda Letress. John and Hez's grandparents were Martin Baty Cochran, Sr., and Isabella Elizabeth West Cochran who are certified as a "First Texas Family" by the Texas State Genealogy Society.

I'm very proud to say that Andrew Jackson Wimberley and Fanny B. Tanner Wimberley were my grandparents."