My Genealogy Hound

M. W. Drewrey, brick manufacturer and contractor, was born in Princess Anne County, Va., in 1828, and is a son of Dr. Matthias and Frances (Wells) Drewrey. The father graduated from a medical college in Virginia, and was associated with Dr. Nash in Norfolk. He was of Scotch descent, born in 1800 and died in 1858. His father was John Drewrey, and his grandfather, Matthias Drewrey, came to the United States from Scotland at an early date. The mother of our subject was born in Virginia and died in 1830, and was the second wife of Dr. Drewrey, bearing him three children, of whom our subject was the eldest. Dr. Drewrey was three times married. M. W. Drewrey was but two years old when he lost his mother, and was educated in his native State, living in Norfolk, Va., until sixteen years of age. He then worked as an apprentice at the brick-mason’s trade for five years, and in 1857 was employed in the Government navy yard at Norfolk for fourteen months. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service, in Company A, Sixteenth Regiment Atlantic Guards, serving as first lieutenant for eighteen months. After the war he worked at his trade in Memphis, Tenn., and in 1869 removed to Van Buren, where he has since made his home. For the past eighteen years he has manufactured brick in Van Buren; the first year he made 600,000, and has averaged 300,000 per annum since, having made in all about 5,400,000. He has them for about $7 per 1,000, thus netting him the sum of $37,600. Dduring these years he has erected a large number of the best buildings in town, among which may be mentioned the court-house, public school, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the business blocks of Wood & Southmayed, Creekmore & Lynch, etc. He has also erected a large college at North Fork and a public school at Paris, Ark. He is a good citizen, and has done more business in his line than any other man in the county. In 1857 he married Miss Amy Rainey, daughter of John S. Rainey, a native of Princess Anne County, Va., and this marriage has been blessed with two children, Maggie, living, and a son who died at the age of seven years. In politics Mr. Drewrey is conservative, but favors Republican principles. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and himself and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.