JOSEPH G. CREWS, lawyer, Fairfield, is a representative of one of the oldest families in Eastern Illinois. Andrew Crews, his great-grandfather, came from Kentucky and settled in Wayne County in the days of Territorial government. Some years after, he was followed by his five sons, who are described as being very tall and erect, and possessed of strong muscular power, and all farmers.
The oldest of these was Matthew, who had a family of thirteen children as the result of two marriages. William, the eldest of these, married in 1839, to Thurmutis Gillison. William was born in Kentucky, in 1818, coming to this county in 1822. The latter was born in White County, Ill., in 1821.
Joseph G. Crews is the oldest of a family born to these parents, and was born in Wayne County, July 16, 1843.William Crews died in 1862, and his wife in 1877.
His education is the result of studious application to books at home, coupled with the advantages of a common school. He early qualified himself for the position of teacher, and taught successively for a period of nine years. Having decided upon the practice of law, he pursued the necessary reading under the Hon. James McCartney, and was admitted to practice in 1871, since which time he has been a member of the Wayne County bar, at Fairfield. He is an earnest advocate of the temperance reform, and has exerted no small influence in perpetuating the good name of Fairfield in that direction.
He was married in Fairfield, to Miss Eliza Shaeffer, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Shaeffer. She was born May 10, 1855, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
Both are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their family consists of four children, viz.:
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