CHARLES E. BREWER has been for many years prominent in the public and business life of Sullivan county, and is now one of the leading undertakers of Shelburn, as well as the coroner of the county, having been elected to that office over a year ago. He entered upon his successful business career when a boy of thirteen years, as an apprentice in a carriage and wagon shop, working in the shop nights and mornings and during vacations, while during the remainder of the time he was in school. He continued thus engaged until he was twenty-two, when he went to Monument, Colorado, and engaged in the furniture and undertaking business with his brother-in-law. During his residence there he learned the undertaking business in all its departments, and returning home after an absence of six years he went to Indianapolis and opened and conducted a carriage shop of his own for four years. Returning thence to Hymera in this county, he was the proprietor of a carriage and repair shop here for eight years, and at the close of that period, in 1902, he came to Shelburn and opened a furniture and undertaking business, but at the present time gives attention exclusively to the latter department.
Mr. Brewer was born in Johnson county, Indiana, May 18, 1861, a son of John C. and Anna (Cummingoer) Brewer, and a grandson of Abram Brewer, who was born in 1790 and died on the 12th of March, 1873. On coming to Indiana he entered land in Johnson county, and became the proprietor of a hotel on the Madison and Indianapolis road, spending the remainder of his life there. His son, John C., born in Mercer county, Kentucky, January 8, 1820, opened a hotel in Greenwood in 1869, and continued the hotel in connection with his farm until his death, January 23, 1874, passing away in the faith of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Brewer was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, March 29, 1825, and she died in 1896. In their family were eight children, namely: Arena, deceased, born March 26, 1846; Lizzie, born August 29, 1849, resides in Colorado; Laura J., deceased, was born February 3, 1851; Marcella, born January 17, 1854, resides in Greenwood, Indiana; Eldora, born January 11, 1856, is deceased; Laura M., born December 29, 1857, resides in Indianapolis; Charles E., the subject of this review; and Edward, born July 3, 1864, resides near Greenwood.
On the 8th of March, 1882, Mr. Brewer was united in marriage to Lillian Miller, who was born December 18, 1864, a daughter of Dr. Abram Miller, of Whiteland, Indiana. She died on the 17th of March, 1891, at Hymera, leaving four children, as follows: Ruby P., the wife of W. B. Bonham, of Hymera; Freeda, born in October, 1885, is now traveling for the J. C. Curtis & Company undertaking supply house; John C., born June 9, 1887, is at home and is working for his father; and Anna May, born December 22, 1895, is a student in the St. Joseph Academy at Terre Haute. On the 17th of April, 1904, Mr. Brewer wedded Luna L. Conover, who was born in February of 1858. Mr. Brewer is an active political worker, voting with the Democracy, and he is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 603, at Hymera; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 911, at Sullivan; and the Knights and Ladies of Security, in Terre Haute. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church, and he is serving as one of the directors of his church.