Andrew Isaac was the son of Isaac Baer Kauffman and grandson of Christian Kauffman, who came from Swabia, Germany to Manor township, Lancaster Co, PA in 1717. He had a farm in Manor township near Columbia. His son, Isaac lived there , and after him, his grandson Andrew Isaac.
He married Catharine Shuman, only daughter of Christian Shuman. She was born in 1875 and died in 1875. They were married in 1825 and lived in Manor township, three miles below Columbia. This faitheful wife and devoted mother survived her husband by more then thirteen years, and lived to enjoy a happy life in the bosom of her worthy family. And she must have been a happy mother, proud in the consciousness of having reared so numerous a family, some of whom hold enviable records in the annals of our Shuman family. They had 16 children, 11 of whom lived to adulthood.
He spent the greater part of his life here as a farmer, and represented Lancaster county in the House of Representatives in 1836, ’37 and ’38. He had served two terms and had assisted Thadeus Stevens in the organization of the Pennsylvania School System.
In 1850, he moved to Cumberland county, near Mechanicsburg, where he spent three years in farming, and then moved into town, where he engaged in the lumber and coal business, 1853.
He built a house on 300 W Main Street.
During this time, when agitation and sympathy for the Negro in slavery were stirring thought and action, he was arrested, charged with harboring fugitive slaves using the underground railroad passage to freedom. During the trial it was found he was entirely innocent of the accusation but that one of the members of his family was the guilty party. He also served as a Mennonite minister.
He then became a drug and hardware merchant, 1854, and continued in that business until his death in 1864.
His letters show him to have had a great religious zeal, while his business papers are characterized by an integrity of purpose which shows him to have been infallible honest. His sister was the mother of Isaac Kauffman Funk, DD, LLD, editor in chief of the Standard Dictionary.
He is buried at Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Mechanicsburg alongside his wife.
