A large frontier family
Andrew married Sarah Ann “Sally” Burrus in 1768. Commemorative family accounts list twelve children: Frances, Samuel, Peter, Thomas, Nancy, Sally, Silas, Andrew, Mary, John, Martha “Patsy” and Dudley. Spellings, nicknames and dates vary across later records, and original family and county documents should be displayed whenever possible.
Through those children, the Tribble name spread across Kentucky and beyond. Descendants entered ministry, farming, professional life and entertainment. Vaudeville performer Andrew “Andy” Tribble came from this extended family line.
Peter Burrus Tribble continues the ministry
Peter followed his father into religious work and supplied Spencer with many of the biographical details later published about Andrew. That makes Peter both a minister in his own right and a crucial keeper of family memory.
Spencer’s biography closes with Andrew’s final charge to Peter and another young preacher: “Play the man for your God.” The sentence became one of the best-known quotations associated with the family and appears in later memorial accounts.
Dudley, the farm and a smaller house
Dudley remained in the parsonage throughout his life. Local history credits him with expanding the farm from 300 acres to approximately 1,200. At some point he reduced the house to a fraction of its original size, leaving the surviving section that later generations moved and restored.
Those changes reflect the practical life of a working farm. Buildings were expanded, divided, covered or dismantled as family needs and finances changed. Preservation begins by understanding those alterations rather than pretending the structure remained untouched.
The people older histories called “servants”
An itemized estate-sale bill dated December 29–31, 1830 is cataloged in the University of Notre Dame’s American Slavery Manuscript Collection. Its fourteenth page lists twelve enslaved people sold from the estate after Sarah’s death.
The catalog does not answer who lived in the house in 1794, who helped build it or what work particular people performed. It does establish that slavery was part of the estate’s history. Obtaining and transcribing the full document may reveal names, purchasers and prices that can support further genealogical research.
Tribble’s persecution for religious belief and the enslavement of people connected to his estate must be presented together. Liberty of conscience was a profound achievement, but it was not freedom equally shared.
Andrew’s final years
Age and illness eventually ended Tribble’s active pastorate at Tates Creek. Spencer described a painful final illness and gave his death date as December 22, 1822. Other later accounts give December 30 or use the year 1823. The site preserves the variation while continuing to seek the strongest original record.
Explore the Notre Dame American Slavery Manuscript Collection catalog.