Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - M. W. Drewrey

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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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 
sold them for about $7 per 1,000, thus netting him the sum of $37,600. 
During 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.