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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Burrows W. Chew, a retired merchant of Oskaloosa, has through well directed and earnest effort in former years become possessed of a competency that now enables him to live retired. It is no unusual thing in this land where opportunity is unhampered by taste or class for the young man of strong purpose and laudable ambition to work his way upward, and it is the record which the American citizen holds in greatest honor. Mr. Chew was born in Gloucester county, New Jersey, in 1824. His father, Elisha D. Chew, also a native of that state, was of English descent. The great-grandfather and others of the Chew family, then residents of Germantown, Pennsylvania, were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. Elisha Chew became a farmer by occupation and removed from New Jersey to Oskaloosa in 1845. He entered a tract of land from the government of five hundred and and twenty acres northwest of town and became identified with the agricultural development of the community. A prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, he was also a preacher of that demonination, and his influence in behalf of the church and of moral development was of no restricted order. His political support was given to the republican party. He married Miss Elizabeth Heritage, also a native of New Jersey, but of Swedish descent. Her death occurred in 1874, when she was eighty-one years of age, while Rev. Elisha D. Chew died in 1880, at the age of eighty-six years. They were the parents of six children: Asa, Elijah, Ann, James and Sarah, all now deceased; and Burrows W., of this review. Of this nuwber, James was a Methodist minister. Burrows W. Chew spent his boyhood days in the usual manner of farm lads. He went to school during the fall and winter months and after putting aside his text books learned the machinist's trade in Gloucester, New Jersey, following that pursuit in the east for eight years. In 1853 he came to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he resumed work at his trade, and in 1863 he turned his attention to merchandising, which he conducted for one year. He next entered the marble business in partnership with H. A. Smith, with whom he was connected for a year, after which he followed blacksmithing and the machinist's trade for thirty-five years. In 1883 he went to Texas, where for about twelve years he conducted a hardware store, after which he returned to Oskaloosa. About ten years ago he retired from active business pursuits and has since rested in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil. In 1846 Mr. Chew was married to Miss Susan S. Rheiner, who was born in Philadelphia in 1823 and died in 1863. By this union there were six children: Emma C.; Albion R., a hardware merchant residing in Texas; Melvina M., the deceased wife of John Lyons; Elvira W., the deceased wife of Marion Hoops; Frank W.; and William Granville, also deceased. In 1867 Mr. Chew was again married, his second union being with Miss Sarah Jane Wright, who was born in Ohio and died in 1869, at the age of thirty-six years. Mr. Chew is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and his political support is given to the republican party.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy