My Genealogy Hound

BREWSTER, CHARLES, President of the Fort Madison Bank; was born in Ireland in 1813; when only 12 years of age, with his grandfather, he emigrated to America and was brought up in Philadelphia; he afterward removed to Indiana, lived there six years, came to Iowa and located in Fort Madison in 1844; he engaged in mercantile trade and successfully conducted that business for thirty-two years; there are only one or two merchants here who have been in business the same length of time; in 1876, he associated with Dr. J. A. Smith and engaged in the banking business; he is also a large landholder; when Mr. Brewster began life he had nothing, and, since he was 12 years old, he has cared for himself and owes his success in life to his own efforts, and is a man of strict integrity in all his dealings. He has been twice married; his first wife was Margaret Badoller, of Vincennes, Ind.; she died in 1852; in 1855, he married his present wife, Eliza J. DeForest, of Sharon, Penn.; they have three children — James, William and Martha.