Mathias M. Chew
Mathias M. Chew



(Page 279 and 280) The Chew family is of English origin, though New Jersey claims its early representatives as citizens.

Robert, the grandfather of Mathias M., was a resident of Franklin Township in Gloucester County, where he was both a farmer and a lumber merchant. By his wife Tamzen, he had thirteen children as follows: Jane, Sarah Ann, Thomas E., Lafayette, Levi, Charles, Margaret, Elizabeth, Esther Ann, Beulah, Samuel D., Phebe and one who died in early youth. Thomas E., the father of Matthias.

M., was born in Franklin Township in 1818, and having acquired knowledge of farming pursuits, made it his calling, to which was added that of brick making. He married Miss Elizabeth Miller and had children, - William, Matthias M., Susanna (married Maskell Bates), Sidney (deceased), Isabella (deceased), Robert, Thomas, Sarah, Elizabeth (deceased), Mary Ella (deceased), and Rose Ella (deceased). In the fall of 1865 he bought of Hugh Gelston, of Baltimore, Md., the Coles Mill property, intending to make of it a cranberry bog, as well as to use it for mill and farming purposes. He devoted seventeen aces of the pond to cranberries, and in 1847 erected a sawmill on the site of the old one which had burned. Mr. Chew�s death resulted from an accident while engaged in sawing shingle-bolts. He was buried at "The Lake," and a fine monument erected to his memory by his children. The property remained in the hands of Mrs. Chew, as administratrix of the estate, until 1870, when she obtained from the court permission to sell the same at public sale.

Matthias M. Chew, second child of Thomas E., was born at "The Lake," in Franklin Township, on the 22d day of February 1842. Here he spent his early boyhood, remaining a member of his father�s family until twenty-one years of age, and living successively in Glassboro, Clayton, Ewansville, Cape May, and Bethel. At the latter place he obtained until eighteen years of age such education as could be acquired by three months� yearly attendance at the district school. With his father�s consent he, in the fall of 1862, enlisted (as did his brother William) in Company D, Twenty-fourth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and was discharged in August 1863., by reason of expiration of term of service, having participated in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorville. On the 22d day of December, 1864, he was married to Miss Mary Etta, daughter of Thomas A. and Abigail (Leonard) Chew, who was of the same family and distantly related. After his marriage Mr. Chew cultivated the farm of his father-in-law on shares for one year, and later rented a farm of Mr. Jessup for a year, then removed to Cole�s Mill, and began the cultivating of cranberries, taking from his father two acres of bog, which he set out to vines, his share being an undivided one half interest. The sudden death of the latter having prevented the consummation of their bargain, he removed to Williamstown and engaged in surveying and conveyancing, to the study of which he had been devoting his leisure hours for several years. Mr. Chew had meanwhile given the cultivation of cranberries much thought and attention, and becoming thoroughly convinced that it could be made a remunerative business, he in 1870 bought, in company with his brother Robert, at the sale above mentioned, the entire property. At the time there were about twenty acres out to vines, though not as yet productive. The following summer he divided the farm with his brother Matthias receiving one hundred and seventy-five acres. The next year Matthias M. had two hundred and eighty bushels of berries, since which time he has planted fifteen acres more to vines, making thirty-five acres in all, from which he has realized five thousand bushels of berries in one year. In October 1881, Mr. Chew bought of William Corkrey two hundred acres of land known as the Hospitality Mill property, situated in Monroe Township, of which fifty acres are set to vines, and yielded eleven hundred bushels of berries this present season. Mr. Chew is the acknowledged pioneer cranberry grower of this part of New Jersey, his success being an evidence of what can be achieved by perseverance and thorough knowledge of the business in which he is engaged. It has inspired others and made the cultivation and raising of cranberries an extensive business, bringing the operators yearly many thousands of dollars, and giving employment during the picking seasons to hundreds of people. He now has all the buildings and appliances necessary to the storage and shipping of his berries, the raising and handling of which he has made a science. Mr. and Mrs. Chew have five children, - Thomas J., born January 8, 1867, and died August 4, 1867; Mary Abigail, born May 21, 1868; Elizabeth, born march 8, 1871; Edward D., born September 11, 1872; and Samuel M., born June 18, 1874.

In politics Mr. Chew is a Republican. He has served two terms of five years each as justice of the peace for Monroe Township, has been for four years a member of the board of freeholders and for the same period assessor of the township. He is at present officiating as freeholder and commissioner of deeds, the latter office having been held for three terms In religion, he is a supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Williamstown, and one of the trustees.

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