Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/220

192 assistant-surgeon in the autumn of this year. He was stationed at Vera Cruz during the latter part of the Mexican war, in 1849 was commissioned as- sistant surgeon, was stationed at Fort Yuma, Cal., and accompanied Capt. William H. Warner on the surveying expedition in which that officer was killed by the Sierra Nevada Indians. In the spring of 1852 he resigned from the army, and, removing to San Francisco, practised medicine there three years. He then returned to New York, and estab- lished himself in his profession. In August, 1861, he re-entered the army as brigade-surgeon of vol- unteers, served under Gen. Charles F. Smith, and afterward as medical director on Gen. Grant's staff at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. He afterward served on the staff of Gen. John M. Scofield, and was bre vetted colonel in March, 1865, for gallant conduct during the war. Dr. Hewit became a Roman Catholic in 1855, and was devoted to the benevolent enterprises of his church. Set- tling in New York after the war, he had charge of the House of the Good Shepherd, was a director of St. Stephen's Orphan Asylum, and president of the medical board of the Charity hospital.

HEWITT, Abram Stevens, statesman, b. in Haverstraw. N. Y., 31 July, 1822. He was educated first at a public school in New York city, where by a special examination he gained a scholarship at Columbia, and was graduated in 1842 at the head of his class. During his col- lege course he sup- ported himself by teaching, and after his graduation he re- mained as an assist- ant, being in 1843 acting professor of mathematics. In 1844 he visited Eu- rope with his class- mate, Edward Coop- er, whose partner he afterward became, and whose sister he married in 1855. Meanwhile he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1845, after an examination in which twenty-four out of fifty-seven applicants were rejected. He soon gave up the practice of his profession on account of impaired eyesight, and became associated with Peter Cooper in the iron business. The firm of Cooper and Hewitt now own and control the Tren- ton, Ringwood, Pequest, and the Durham iron- works. The development and management of these vast enterprises have been principally the result of Mr. Hewitt's efforts. In 1862 he went to England to learn the process of making gun-barrel iron, and at a heavy loss to his firm furnished the U. S. gov- ernment with material during the civil war. The introduction of the Martins-Siemens or open-hearth process for the manufacture of steel in this country is due to his judgment. No serious labor trou- bles have ever affected their works, and in times of commercial depression the furnaces have been carried on at a loss, rather than add by suspen- sion to the distress of the community. The plan of the Cooper Union was devised by its own trustees, with Mr. Hewitt as their active head, and as secretary of this board he has directed its financial and educational details, bestowing upon it for more than a quarter of a century an amount of labor exceeding the duties of some college F residents. He left the Tammany, joined the rving Hall society, and was one of the organ- izers of the County Democracy in 1879. He was elected to congress in 1874, and served continu- ously, with the exception of one term, until 1886. Mr. Hewitt was an advocate of honest finan- cial legislation, of a moderate and discriminating tariff reform, and has been a frequent speaker on subjects connected with finance, labor, and the development of national resources. The II. S. geological survey owes its existence principally to an address delivered in its favor by Mr. Hewitt, and his speeches generally have commanded the attention of both parties. In October. 1886, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York city, and at the subsequent election received 90,552 votes against 68,110 for Henry George and 60,435 for Theodore Roosevelt. His management of the municipal government has been marked by a rigid enforcement of the laws, and holding the heads of the various de- partments to a strict accountability. Mr. Hewitt was chairman of the Democratic national com- mittee in 1876. He has taken an interest in all matters pertaining to the development of New York city, and in 1883 was chosen to be the orator at the opening of the East River bridge. Colum- bia gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1887, and he was the president of its alumni association in 1883. In 1876 he was elected president of the American institute of mining engineers, and his retiring address on "A Century of Mining and Metallurgy in the United States " attracted favor- able criticism at home and abroad. His report on " Iron and Steel " at the World's fair held in Paris in 1867 was received with approval, and was re- published at home and abroad.

HEWITT, Charles Nathaniel, physician, b. in Vergennes, Vt., 3 June, 1836. He was educated at Hobart college, and was graduated at the Al- bany medical college in 1857. He practised his profession in Geneva, N. Y., until 1861, when he entered the U. S. 4 army as assistant surgeon of the 50th New York regiment, and rose to the rank of brigade surgeon. After the war he removed to Red Wing, Minn., where he is professor of public health in the University of Minnesota. Dr. Hew- itt devotes himself especially to surgery, and has invented a modification of the starch bandage.

HEWITT, Edward Crawford, educator, b. in Sutton, Mass., 7 Nov., 1828. He was educated at the County academy and the State normal school in Bridgeport, Conn., working at the shoemaker's trade during his vacations to obtain a support. He taught successively in Pittsfield, Pa., Bridge- port, Conn., and Worcester, Mass., until 1858, when he removed to Bloomington, 111., was professor of history and geography in the State normal uni- versity, and since 1876 has been its president. Mr. Hewitt is a licensed clergyman of the Baptist church, has served one term as president of the Illinois teachers' association, and for several years edited " The Schoolmaster," an educational maga- zine. He has received the degree of LL. D. from Shurtleff college, and has published '"Pedagogy for Young Teachers " (Cincinnati, 1883).

HEWITT, Mary Elizabeth, authoress, b. in Maiden, Mass., in 1818. Her father, a farmer named Moore, died when she was three years old. Her mother then removed to Boston, where Mary resided until her marriage to James L. Hewitt, of New York city. Several years after his death she married, in 1854, R. Stebbins of the same city. She is chiefly known by her poetical contributions to periodicals. She edited a gift-book entitled " The