McGrew, Simon

MCGREW

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 10/3/2008 at 13:41:53

Simon McGrew

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.189, Neola Twp.)
Simon McGrew, farmer, P. O. Neola, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., November 23, 1843, son of John and Elizabeth (Robbins) McGrew, natives of Pennsylvania; he, born about 1798, died about 1876; was a miller by trade, also a farmer; she, born about 1808, died in 1845, and was the mother of eight children, two of whom are dead. When our subject was one year old, his parents removed to Illinois. He there attended the common schools and worked on his father's farm till he joined the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After serving three years in the army, he returned to Illinois, where he remained a year, thence to Iowa one year, and, after a year spent in Illinois, he again farmed in Iowa for a year, and then clerked for three eyars in his brother's store, after which he broke prairie for one year. In 1875, he bought the farm of forty acres on which he now lives. Mr. McGrew was married, November 11, 1875, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Emma J. Norris, born November 11, 1855, in Ingham County, Mich., daughter of J. W. and Electa A. (Greenman) Norris, natives of New York State, he born September 20, 1824, she born March 24, 1831. Mr. and Mrs. McGrew have three children - Ella G., born September 3, 1876; Alice M., January 19, 1878; and John L., November 6, 1879. Mr. McGr4ew is a Republican.