John Calhoun Chew
Source: History of the Bench and Bar of New York, Edited by Honorable David McADAM, Honorable Henry Bischoff, Jr., Richard H. Clarke, LL.D., Honorable Jackson O. Dykman, Honorable Joshua M. Van Cott, and Honorable George G. Reynolds; Volume I. New York History Company, 1897; page 84-85.



CHEW, JOHN CALHOUN (born at Holly Springs, Mississippi, May 28, 1838), is the eldest surviving son of Captain John Chew and Mary Ann Smith, both natives of Maryland; and is of the ninth generation, in this country, in direct descent from the founder of the American branch of the Chew family, John Chew of Chewton, Somersetshire, England, who settled in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620-21.

Mr. Chew's education was acquired mainly at Chalmers Institute, Holly Springs, Mississippi, but it was supplemented by a private course of study, and by extensive travel in this country, while recuperating from a precarious state of health, which precluded a two years' term at a Virginia college for which he had prepared. Later he read law with Thomas W. Harris, of Holly Springs, concluding his law studies at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from which he graduated, March 6, 1860. He was admitted to the bar the following April, at Brenham, Texas, where he began the practice of law, establishing the same year a cotton plantation on the Brazos River in that State. The Civil War intervening, Mr. Chew at its close resumed practice at Houston, Texas. In 1866, during an extensive European tour, he wrote a series of letters to the Galveston News that attracted wide attention. On his return, in addition to his law practice, he became connected with the press of Houston, as editor and proprietor and afterward as correspondent at New York of the Houston Telegraph.

In 1872 he took up his residence in New York City, where he established an office, representing large Texas interests at the metropolis. For nearly a quarter of a century he has remained counsel and fiscal agent at New York of important corporations, municipal, railway, and land, and has been promoter of various industrial interests in the great Southwest. In 1873 and 1874, by appointment of Governor Davis, he was Fiscal Agent of the State of Texas in New York City; and from 1873 to 1876, by appointment of President Grant, he was United States Centennial Commissioner, from the same State, in charge of the International Exhibition at Philadelphia.

Mr. Chew has been eminently successful in dealing with the intricacies of financial questions; and, through his efforts for the interests he has represented, he has contributed largely to the development of the resources of the Southwest.

In 1861 Mr. Chew married Zilphia Guthrie Fuller. She died August 8, 1863, leaving issue a son, Rev. John Marshall Chew, who, since June, 1891, has been rector of the "Church of the Good Shepherd," at Newburgh, New York. Mr. Chew married again February 1, 1876, Theodora R. Seixas.



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