Andrew Jackson Bratcher.  A rising young member of the Butler County bar, Andrew Jackson Bratcher, while making rapid strides in his profession has also rendered valuable public service and at present occupies the position of Circuit Court clerk.  He is a native of Butler County, where his entire life has been passed, having been born at Dexterville, September 26, 1890, a son of Commodore B. C. and Laura Bratcher.  The family was founded in Kentucky by his great-grandfather, who was a pioneer from Virginia in the early days, settling in Grayson County, where he was engaged in agricultural operations during the remainder of his life.  His son, Bennett Bratcher, the grandfather of Andrew J., was born in Grayson County, subsequently moving to Butler County, in both of which communities he followed farming and stockraising as a vocation.   During the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army and about the time of the battle of Shiloh, died from an attack of pneumonia.  He married Rebecca Kessinger, who was born in Butler County, Kentucky, and who belonged to a family that had been founded in Colonial Virginia, whence it came to Kentucky at an early day.

Commodore B. C. Bratcher was born in 1857, in Butler County, where he was reared, educated and married and where his entire active life was passed in the pursuits of the soil.  His farm was situated 2 1/2 miles north of Dexterville and on this property he made numerous improvements and continued his intelligent, practical and successful activities until his death in 1909.  He was a republican in politics and his religious faith was that of the Missionary Baptist Church, to which belongs his worthy widow, who survives him and still lives on the old home place.  She was born in 1860, in Butler County, and bore her husband four children: Frances Ann, who resides at Owensboro, Kentucky; Andrew Jackson; Minnie, who married Herbert Evans, a farmer near Banock, Butler County; and Eliza Jane, who is unmarried and resides with her mother.

Andrew J. Bratcher was educated primarily in the public schools of the rural districts of Butler County, following which he attended Hartford College, Hartford, Kentucky, which he left in 1912.  In the meantime, in 1909, he had commenced teaching school, a vocation which he followed for some years in Butler County, and while thus engaged read law under Capt. N. T. Howard of Morgantown.  He was admitted to the bar in September, 1913, and in the winter of 1917 came to Morgantown and for one year was clerk of the exemption board of Butler County.  While thus employed he took the opportunity to assist in all the drives for bond sales, etc., and in various ways assisted the organizations which were working in behalf of the movements mad necessary by war's demands.

Mr. Bratcher began the active practice of law in 1918 and soon attracted to himself a very gratifying clientele.  He devoted himself closely to this profession until January 9, 1920, when he accepted the appointment to the office of clerk of the Circuit Court to fill out the unexpired term of R. E. Keown, this period of office terminating in January, 1922.  He maintains offices in the court house.  In politics Mr. Bratcher is a republican.  He holds membership in Acacia Lodge No. 272, A. F. & A. M., Morgantown; and Winnipee Tribe, I. O. R. M., of Welcome, Kentucky, in both of which he is popular and has many friends, as he has also in professional and political circles.   He is the owner of a pleasant and comfortable home at Morgantown.

In 1915, in Butler County, Mr. Bratcher was married to Miss Fannie D. Pharris, residents of Rosine, Ohio County, Kentucky, and to this union were born three children: Waldemar Dwight, born April 6, 1916; Clifton Rhodes, born December 23, 1918; and John Vance, born September 24, 1920.