Armed with a Hunting Horn

Oxcart at Chew's Store (SallyWhall photo)

Passing through Owensville always meant a stop at Chew’s Store.  It was the place to get provisions and information, to pick up mail, and to water the oxen.  

The Chews who ran the store were merchants with a pedigree.  In 1624 John Chew of Jamestown was named “one of the ablest merchants in Virginia”. (VA Mag vol 1 p87).

Seven generations later, in 1840’s, his descendent John Walter Chew opened a store in Owensville. In 1870 John Walter’s son Summerfield took over, and in 1921 his grandson Sam took charge.

Sam Chew c1933. KChew photo

The store was the center of village life.  Neighborhood men gathered there to talk until closing time at 10.  Young children waited there after school until parents got home from work. 

Inside was every commodity from corsets to chamber pots, from plow rope to horse collars.
  
"One display case held sewing materials, another held candy.  On the lefthand counter was a cash register, also a small scale for spices, and a cylinder dispensing wrapping paper.  The boxes of flavoring, baking powder, soda, and syrup were behind the clerk."  (Kate Chew)

Credit was extended as well as charity. 

“Aunt Fannie Camphor had worked for the Hopkins family for years.  She still thought her food was supplied by ‘Old Marse’, but really Chew’s Store fed her.” (Kate Chew)

The Post Office was at the back.  

Before automobiles, a post rider would bring the mail 3 times a week on a fast horse from Millersville.  This was Southern Maryland’s Pony Express.   But instead of a gun, the rider was armed with a tin hunting horn.  His horn brought the village children running!

Chew’s Store was torn down in 1952.  

Thus ended the Chew merchant dynasty and Owensville's commercial heyday.

Chew's Store teardown. Owensville MD