James Osgood Andrew, I). D., an American clergyman, one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church South, born in Wilkes county, Ga., May 3, 1794, died in Mobile, Ala., March 2, 1871. At the age of 18 he was licensed to preach, and in December, 1812, he was received into the South Carolina conference. At the general conference of 1832 he was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church. His second wife being the owner of slaves, the northern delegates to the general conference of 1844 judged that "this would greatly embarrass the exercise of his office as an itinerant general superintendent, if not in some places entirely prevent it." Accordingly, the majority of the body resolved "that it is the sense of this general conference that he should desist from the exercise of this office so long as this impediment remains." The southern delegates, considering this a virtual suspension from the episcopal office, and therefore extra-judicial and unconstitutional, entered their protest. The result was an amicable division of the church into two independent jurisdictions, with an equitable apportionment of the church property.

The southern division, under the name of the Methodist Episcopal church South, held a general conference at Petersburg, Va., in May, 1840, at which time Bishop Soule, senior bishop of the M. E. church, and Bishop Andrew gave in their adherence to the church South. Bishop Andrew continued to exercise his episcopal functions till 1808, when he retired from active duty on account of age. His volumes of "Miscellanies" and on "Family Government" have been widely circulated.