Congressman Milton Andrew (Andy) Romjue

By John Lawson Romjue, his loving grandson

Milton Andrew (Andy) Romjue, a Missouri congressman for 24 years spanning the two World Wars, was born at Lovelake, Macon County in 1874. He was one of nine children of Andrew Jackson and Susan (Roan) Romjue, both of early Missouri families who were part of the westward migration to the state from Virginia and North Carolina.

The Romjue family traced its ancestry to Dr. John Romjue, a French immigrant who came to this country during the Revolutionary War as an associate and friend of Lafayette by family oral tradition. Dr. Romjue settled in Westport, Kentucky after the war. His only son, John Henry Romjue, grandfather of Andy Romjue, was an early Missouri pioneer in Scotland County.

Congressman Romjue was a self-made man who put himself through law school at the University of Missouri, graduating first in his class in 1904. He served as Probate Court Judge of Macon County from 1906 until 1914. In 1916 he was elected to the US House of Representatives for the first time, representing the Northeast Missouri counties that had originally been a part of the old First Congressional District until 1942, with the exception of the years 1920, 1921 and 1922.

Voting for World War Declarations - in both 1917 and 1941 - he was Chairman of the House Post Office and Post Roads Committee. He sponsored and supported many bills and initiatives for war veterans, old-age pension plans and during the Great Depression he initiated relief legislation for destitute farmers. He also sponsored flood control and other public works for the people of the First District, including the first highway bridge over the Mississippi River at Hannibal. He served four years as Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee and was a delegate to state and national party conventions.

Known to friends and supporters as Andy, he was a skilled politician who liked people and had an unusual gift for reading them. A natural born storyteller with a good sense of humor, he enjoyed a wide circle of friends throughout the First District as well as in the Congress. Married in 1900 to Maude Nickell Thompson, also of Macon County, Andy Romjue was the father of one son, Lawson Romjue, a Macon prosecuting attorney and judge of the Missouri Circuit Court. In retirement, he spent several years on his Nickellton farm raising cattle and mules, residing in later years on North Rollins Street in Macon.

His son Lawson married Joanne (Hutchinson) Romjue in 1929 and were the parents of Andrew Lawson Romjue (died in infancy); James Alan Romjue (1932-1986); Anne (Romjue) Ethridge of Springfield, Missouri; John Lawson Romjue of Yorktown, Virginia; and William Andrew Romjue of Hartsburg, Missouri. Andy was very close to his son and daughter-in-law and devoted to all five of his grandchildren.

Andy was a member of the First Baptist Church of Macon and the Masonic Order. He passed away in Macon at the age of 93.