Joseph Irwin Brewer

Among the prominent citizens of Greene county who are well known because of the part they have taken in private, public and business life is the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch and who is the son of Lorenzo Dow and Matilda (Goodman) Brewer, having been born January 19, 1860. The Brewer family came from Virginia, the subject's father having been thirteen years old, having been born in 1816, when his father settled in Stafford township, where Lorenzo Brewer spent his life. He was a justice of the peace for sixteen years and was a minister of the Baptist church, having been ordained at Bethel, but he devoted most of his life to farming. However, he did a great deal of preaching. He became a very prosperous man, owning two hundred and forty acres of land, and he also had one thousand and five hundred dollars at thet ime of his death, which occurred in 1891, when he had reached the age of seventy-five years. His wife was born in 1818. Seven children were born to this union, five of whom are living. Joseph I. Brewer, the subject of this sketch, worked on his father's farm during the summer months and attended the country schools in the winter time, during his boyhood, taking a delight in ministering to the wants of his aged parents. In 1881 he was united in marriage with Jennie E. Trinkle, whose parents, William F. and Jemima (Good) Trinkle, were old settlers of Greene county. Like her husband, she received a good common school education. The following children of the subject and wife are all living in 1908: Rose M., age twenty-five; Emma E., who is twenty-three, is a graduate of the high school in Knox county and is a student in the State Normal in 1908; Gilbert W., who is twenty-one years old, is a graduate of the common schools; Nellie M., who is nineteen years old, is a graduate of the common schools; Hallie J. is thirteen years old and Cora E. is nine years of age.

Mr. Brewer has much valuable land, having a farm of three hundred and twenty-five acres in Greene county and one in Knox county consisting of one hundred and twenty-five acres, the total value of both being twenty-five thousand dollars. About fifty acres of this valuable landed estate was inherited by the subject, the balance he has made himself, which fact shows that he is not only a man of unusual business ability, but also a man of great industry. In connection with looking after the agricultural end of his farms, Mr. Brewer handles a great deal of stock, sometimes shipping to market and often selling to local buyers, and in the handling of stock he shows that rare judgment which he has always exercised in his other business. He is a Democrat and a trustee in the Baptist church at Bethel.

Mr. Brewer has always maintained a reputation for square dealing and upright business principles, and as a result he has the unqualified respect of all those living in his community.

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"Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days", B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1908, Vol. 3 pg. pages 1087-1089.

Last updated 9.11.2009