James A. Chew Papers

James Andrew Chew was born in Xenia, Ohio on July 10, 1882, the son of William B. Chew and Anna V. Mcburney Chew. He attended Xenia schools and received further academic training at the Miami Military Institute, Germantown, and at Ohio's Military Institute. James Chew married Jessie R. Baker of Xenia in 1904 and had three daughters, including Mrs. William A. (Elizabeth) Siebenthaler of Oakwood.

James A. Chew became a partner in 1906 with his father, William B. Chew, in a newspaper publishing and printing business which James' grandfather, James Parker Chew, had bought in 1877. From 1907 to 1912, J.A. Chew learned the printer's trade as an apprentice and became manager in 1912.

J.A. formed the Chew Publishing Company in 1915, printing and publishing Greene County's second newspaper. The Xenia Daily Gazette became the longest lived continuous business enterprise in that city and grew steadily. By 1955 he had ownership of the Piqua Daily Call. In 1959 he bought interest in the Middletown Journal and in 1963 acquired the Franklin Chronicle.

Chew was active in Republican politics and attended the 1932 Republican National Convention in Chicago as an alternate. He wrote an occasional editorial in his newspaper in Xenia and believed in bipartisanship. In 1962 he received community service recognition from the Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce. James A. Chew was a member of Trinity Methodist Church and Xenia Rotary Club. He was active in civic and community affairs.

He was instrumental in reviving the old YMCA and in starting the new one. He established the J.P. Chew Foundation for charitable activities. James A. Chew died in July, 1964. His business enterprise stayed in the family of his daughter Elizabeth and her husband William A. Siebenthaler, who was a close business associate and succeeded his father-in-law as company president. Mr. Chew's home in Xenia was located at 228 North King Street.