Family notes courtesy of Richard Manley Snethen
Andrew felt the call of "gold" and, in 1849, headed for California. After a train ride to Detroit, there was a stage coach ride to Utah, with further travel by horseback. It was in this latter part of the journey that he found himself in conflict with an Indian who got the worst of the deal.
The stories vary. One version is that, after capture by a tribe, he was forced in a southern trip to ride piggy-back behind a scout. When the Indian got off his horse Andre took the opportunity to stab him; then he got back on his horse and rode on.
The other version is that, while Andrew and horse were drinking from a pool, Andrew saw a shadow of the Indian in the water and quickly turning disarmed the intruder and continued his way westward.
After a time he returned by boat, either around the Horn or perhaps by foot across the jungle of Central America. In any case, within one year, he had reached Massachusetts by boat and then on to Pennsylvania.
There is no record of success as far as a gold discovery is concerned. It is said that his carpenter skills were well used; he was active in building wooden caskets for others less fortunate. There are other stories about this trip which are not verified. Perhaps he had smallpox in California. Perhaps he sent a substantial amount of gold home from the West by a friend who was coming to Ohio and who delivered the gold to Catherine. It is true that there was enough money to pay for his farm in Pennsylvania.
Andrew had chosen a farm of about 200 acres of somewhat hilly ground near a stream and with substantial timber. He built a good two story house that remains in good condition 140 years later.
He was a good carpenter and a wagon maker and invented the Haskell Revolving Sulkey Hayrake which was the first horse-drawn dump hayrake. Quite a few of these tools were sold in the immediate area and were in use well into the 20th century. It is said that McCormick adapted the principle to one of its early rakes.
He apparently made enough money from the farm and the sale of the hayrakes and other tools to allow his children to attend Waterford Academy; perhaps much of the credit for this affluence should go to his wife who was somewhat more inclined to be not as generous as her husband.
Andrew was a gregarious person and took a strong stand in favor of abolition. His farmhouse served for several years as a haven for runaway slaves. His hatred of alcoholism probably came from his experience with his father who spent his later years with Andrew on the farm. It can be said that as Lucius and his failing, Andrew would give his father small amounts of whiskey from time to time. At the time father Lucian was living in a small cabin removed at some distance from the principal farm buildings because of the hazard of smoking and general carelessness with matches.
Andrew ran for Erie County sheriff in 1873 and for General Assembly in 1874 and 1882, always on the Prohibition ticket and always unsuccessfully. Andrew was an avid reader and was said to be a marvelous story teller. It has been said that, immediately before his death in a downstairs bedroom at home, the family present heard him orate vigorously "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; whosoever is deceived thereby is lost."