Charles A. Jewett Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1483-1484 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CHARLES A. JEWETT is a native of the old Buckeye state, having 
been born in Newark, Licking county, Ohio, on the 7th of February, 1848, 
and being a son of David D. and Mary (Taylor) Jewett, natives of Ohio. 
The father of the subject was engaged in the grocery trade in Newark for 
many years and was one of the honored citizens and successful business 
men of that section. He died in 1891, and his wife passed away in 1848. 
They became the parents of ten children, of whom four are living at the 
present time. The subject secured his early educational training in the 
public schools and continued his studies until he had attained the age 
of seventeen years, when he commenced work in his father's grocery 
store, being thus engaged until 1870, when he removed to Kansas City, 
Missouri, and embarked in the wholesale grocery business upon his own 
responsibility. At the expiration of two years he disposed of his 
interests in that city and removed to Independence, Kansas, where he was 
established in the same line of trade until 1875, when he sold out, 
passing the ensuing seven years as traveling salesman for prominent 
wholesale grocery houses, in New York and Chicago. In July, 1882, he 
entered into a partnership with his brothers, Harvey and R. N., and 
opened a grocery house in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in which city he took 
up his residence in March of the following year. There he remained until 
June, 1888, when he removed to Sioux Falls, where he has since 
maintained his home, the enterprise in Aberdeen being still continued 
under the corporate titles of Jewett Brothers. At the time of taking up 
his abode in Sioux Falls the firm of Jewett Brothers & Jewett, which is 
now incorporated under the laws of the state, purchased the wholesale 
grocery business of Ward & Frick, in this city, and forthwith began to 
expand the scope of the enterprise, and this concern figures as the 
first distinctively wholesale house in South Dakota, and its business 
has grown to magnificent proportions under the able management of our 
subject and his coadjutors. In March, 1893, a branch establishment was 
opened at Sheldon, Iowa, and the trade of the concern now ramifies 
thoroughly a very wide area of country, the facilities being unexcelled 
and the reputation of the concern unassailable. In r884 the firm shipped 
the first carload of sugar ever brought into the state, the same having 
been consigned to their establishment in Aberdeen. In 1897 its shipment 
of sugar into the state reached the enormous aggregate of two hundred 
and forty carloads, which one item gives evidence of the great and 
substantial growth of the business, which in that year represented 
transactions amounting to more than one million and two hundred thousand 
dollars. In 1902 the concert shipped in three hundred and thirty-three 
carloads of sugar, averaging forty thousand pounds to a car, more than 
double the weight per car of the shipment of 1897, while the aggregate 
of the business for the year reached more than two and a quarter 
millions of dollars. The branch establishment at Sheldon is conducted 
under the title of Jewett Brothers & Company, and this is also 
incorporated. In 1901 Mr. Jewett effected the organization of the Jewett 
Fruit & Fish Company, of Sioux Falls, of which he has been president 
from the start, and the concern has likewise built up a large and 
prosperous business. In 1902 he organized the Manchester Biscuit 
Company, of Sioux Falls, of which he is president, while he is also 
vice-president of thc Andrew Kuhn Company, wholesale grocers, in Sioux 
Falls. Each of these large enterprises has felt the influence of his 
progressive spirit and high administrative talents, and he is held in 
high regard in business circles and is esteemed by all who know him. In 
1903 Mr. Jewett organized the Jewett Drug Company, of Aberdeen, the same 
conducting a wholesale and general jobbing business, and he is president 
of this corporation. 

	Mr. Jewett has taken an active interest in public affairs, as 
touching civic advancement, and prior to 1896 he was a stalwart 
supporter of the Republican party. In the campaign of that year he found 
his views not in harmony with the platform of the party and has since 
maintined an independent attitude. taking the stand that he is today a 
Lincoln Republican and being well fortified in his convictions and 
opinions as to matters of public policy. He has been a delegate to both 
state and county conventions of the Republican party and has never 
wavered in his allegiance to its basic and primary principles. He was 
for two years president of the Sioux Falls Daily Press Company, but has 
now disposed of his interests in the same. 

	On the 12th of May, 1869, Mr. Jewett was united in marriage to 
Miss Elizabeth Ryan, of Troy, New York. No children have been born of 
this union, but they have reared and educated two nieces of Mrs. Jewett.