Early Life
DeCew was born in 1766 in the British colonies which would, after the War of American Independence, become the United States. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online indicates that he was born in New Jersey, whereas a plaque located in Thorold, Ontario indicates that he was born in Vermont He was the eldest son of Jacob DeCew and Elizabeth Bloome. With his family, who remained loyal to Britain after American independence, he immigrated to Upper Canada in 1787.
In 1788, he served on a survey crew, and around the same time, acquired a site for a mill at what is currently known as DeCew Falls on Beaverdams Creek. He constructed one of the first sawmills in the region, and later constructed a grist mill. He became an officer in the 2nd Lincoln Militia in 1797. In 1798, DeCew married Katherine Dockstader, daughter of Frederick Dockstader of the Butler's Rangers. The couple had 11 children (5 sons and 6 daughters). In 1800, DeCew was a founding member of the Niagara Library Board, the first circulating library in Upper Canada. He also held various local offices in Thorold township, including the positions of assessor, collector and warden.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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