Charleston Mercury, By Carew & Heart, April 22, 1850
CHARLESTON, Monday Morning, April 22, 1850
Death of Mr. Edward Carew
We record with a sorrow which all who knew him intimately will understand and
share the death of Mr. Edward Carew, who departed this life at one o'clock on
Saturday morning, at the age of seventy years. His complaint was pneumonia,
and so rapid was its progress that his death seemed more like the work of
resistless outward violence then inward disease. On Thursday he was seen
about the city uncomplaining, and he continued his active superintendence of
the work on the plank road beyond the city until night, when he was carried
home sick. Thirty hours after he was a corpse. His devotion to the
construction of this road, which he thought a project of great public
utility, induced him to expose himself to the bleak Easterly winds of last
week, with that disregard of personal consequences in the discharge of a
public duty, which was strictly characteristic of him, and this exposure was
undoubtedly the cause of his illness.
Mr. Carew was a native of Ireland, but came to this country in childhood, and
for more than half a century has been a citizen of Charleston. Success has
certainly marked his life, but that is one of the least of his claims to
respect. He was successful by means of earnest and persevering labor, and
systematic good management. There was no taint of injustice or chicanery or
oppression in his business career. We know not a man in whose integrity we
had a more perfect confidence, or one with whom truth was held more sacred.
No man was more sincere, or warm, or constant in friendships; and few men at
his age have gone to their graves mourned by a greater number of friends, who
date their intimacy back to early manhood. His striking characteristic was
persistence to the end, in all his convictions of right and truth. He showed
this in his business, in which he was laborious, upright and systematic; in
his friendships, in which he was confiding, candid, generous without stint,
and slow to believe evil; in his character of citizen, in which he showed an
unchangeable devotion to the prosperity and honor of the State, and a zealous
fidelity in the discharge of all public duties. He was eminently a man of
good counsel, and was often appealed to as one who was wise by experience,
and who gave his advice with modest simplicity, and with a candor and
truthfulness from which nothing could ever induce him to deviate.
His knowledge of life, his profound natural common sense, his truthfulness,
and his abhorrence of shams and pretexts, made him a caustic commentator and
sever judge of men, but in his heart he was kindly and humane. His servants
ever knew him as an indulgent master and true friend; while his equals who
enjoyed his intimacy were bound to him by his perfect good faith, his
excellent practical wisdom, and an infectious cheerfulness of temper which
even bodily suffering could hardly abate.
As a private citizen, Mr. Carew has filled a large space in our community,
and filled it well, and his death will make a blank at many points, not easy
to replace with the same degree of unpretending and undeniable worth.
J.M.C.
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Edward Carew was the son of John and Mary Carew that came to the US in 1784
from Ireland. His mother died at sea. He had 5 siblings. He married Esther
Eve W? (this may have been a second marriage. He had 2 children, John and
Susan.
Will for Esther W. Carew, Widow, Box 101, page 750, dtd Nov.----1854, Book
B, #47, 1851-1856, Record of Wills for Charleston County, SC
She left a house and lot in Coming St. and named several people:
a granddau. Mary Esther (or Elizabeth) Blackwood;
a grddau Susan Ann Zealy;
a daughter Susan C. Newton, wife of William Newton;
Executors: Chas M. Furman, Thomas Lehre and a grandson Edwin Newton.
ACodicil dtd Jan 19, 1856 with witnesses IG Blum, Ella H. Bird and Martha
Davis. Probate Mch 3rd 1856, recorded
Will Book No. L, page 437, 1851-1856.