Later Life
In 1832, DeCew unsuccessfully opposed William Hamilton Merritt's bid for election to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada in what has been described as an extremely vindictive campaign. DeCew was associated with the reform politics of William Lyon Mackenzie, but there is no evidence that he took any active role in the Rebellions of 1837.
With his milling business in ruins, DeCew relocated in 1834 to Haldimand County on the Grand River. Here, he once again operated a sawmill. He failed to secure rights to operate a bridge or ferry on the Grand River, but in 1835 did obtain an incorporation for a glass works. However, he never produced any glass and the charter expired in 1845. DeCew lived off of his milling, farming and lime kiln operations, and died in Decewsville, Ontario (a settlement named in his honour) on March 25, 1855.
Read more about this topic: John De Cew
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Many older wealthy families have learned to instill a sense of public service in their offspring. But newly affluent middle-class parents have not acquired this skill. We are using our children as symbols of leisure-class standing without building in safeguards against an overweening sense of entitlement—a sense of entitlement that may incline some young people more toward the good life than toward the hard work that, for most of us, makes the good life possible.”
—David Elkind (20th century)