This is a short biography of former Truxton Circle resident, William C. Chew.
William Corbin Chew was born December 7, 1918 to Albert I. Chew, an African American chauffeur and Cecelia Mae Corbin in Washington, DC. In 1920 he lived at 40 Hanover St NW. He lived there with his older sister Irene, who was 4 in 1920.
They had moved over to 38 1/2 Hanover by the 1930 census, His father was still a driver, but working for the Ft. Meyer Laundry. The family had expanded and William was the one son among three daughters.
In the last census where we find William C. Chew he resided at 45 Hanover St NW in 1940. He was 21, single, living with his parents and three sisters, along with a brother in law. His father was still a driver, aged 49 and working for the US government. William was a “new worker”. When he registered for the draft for WWII he worked at the Palais Royal Department Store.
At some point in time he married Nelline Elizabeth McPherson. She was born in 1923 in Gainesville, VA with an unknown father on her birth certificate. She is located at 51 1/2 Hanover St as Nelline Chew, living with her aunt and uncle Ethel and Percy H. Nichens, their adult children, minor child, and granddaughter. William is nowhere to be found.
Everything else until his death is a mystery. He died in March 1987 and his last known address was in Silver Spring, MD. Hopefully that is the correct Bill Chew, as a William B. Chew also died in March 1987 but he lived near/in Baltimore and had a different set of parents.
The goal of the Truxton Circle History Project is to find every man, woman, and child who lived in the neighborhood using every available source. The Project uses the 1880-1950 censuses, the power of Ancestry and every other online resource to discover and uncover neighborhood history.