HEWITT
HEWITT
/^^
removed with his parents to New York city,
wlxere he attendeil the public school uiul gained
a scholarsliip at Columbia college, where lie was
graduated with first honors in 1842, receiving his
A.M. degree in 184"). While at college he earned
the money to pay his expenses by teaching and
he continued at Columbia as instructor and
assistant in mathematics until 1844, when he
visited Europe with his classmate, Edward
Cooper. He was ad-
mitted to the bar in
is!,"> and practised in
New York for a sliort
time. He gave up the
law practice to en-
gage in the manu-
facture of iron, in
wliich liis classmate.
El ward Cooper, had
just entered as a
partner with liis
father, Peter Coojier,
and the firm became
Cooper & Hewitt, Mr-
Hewitt becoming the
manager of the ex-
tensive works and mines in New Jersey, at
Trenton, Phillipsburg, Ring wood and Pequest. In
18o5 he was married to Sarah Amelia, daughter
of Peter and Sarah (Bedell) Cooper. Within sixty
days after the publication of the results of Besse-
mer's experiments as set forth in his i)aper read
before the Cheltenham meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in
1856 Mr. Cooper erected at Phillipsburg an ex-
perimental Bessemer couA'erter. The civil war
created an unusual demand for steel for t!:e
manufacture of gun-barrels and in 18G3 Mr.
Cooper went to Europe to study the process of
its manufacture. On his return lie supplied the
U.S. government with the material at consider-
ably less than the cost of production. He was a
U.S. commissioner to the Paris Exposition of
18G7, where he made a thorough investigation of
the manufacture of iron and steel, and his report
was esteemed of great commercial interest. On
his return he erected at Weston the first Amer-
ican open-hearth furnace under the Martin
patents controlled by Cooper & Hewitt, and in
1870 he produced the first high-pliosphorus low-
carbon steel of commercial value manufactured
in the United States. During IMr. Hewitt's
management no serious labor trouble disturbed
the busine.ss and when the times demanded a
curtailment of production the works were kept
going on short time .so as to give the employees
work sufficient to meet their weekly needs, even
at a loss to the concern. He was the chief of the
board of trustees that devised the plan of the
Cooper Union in New York city and while
nominally holding the office of secretary of the
board, the educational and financial details of
the institution were directed by him and for
more than forty years he continued to hold the
position equivalent to that of president of a
college. He was a Democratic representative
from New York city in the 44tli, 4r)tli, 47th, 48th
and 49th congresses, 1875-79 and 1881 -f^G, resign-
ing in 1886 to accept the nomination for mayor
of New York city, to which office he was elected
in November, receiving 22,422 more votes tiian
Henry George and 30,117 more than Theodore
Roosevelt. He assumed the duties of the office
Jan. 1, 1887, serving until* Jan. 1, 1889. He was
chairman of the Democratic national committee
of 1876. In congress Mr. Hewitt advocated tariff
reform and was a frecivient speaker on finance,
labor, and the development of national resources
in connection with the prosecution of U.S.
geological surveys. As major of New York city
he rigidly enforced the laws and held the head of
each department accountable for the conduct of
his specific affairs. He was a charter member of
the American Institute of Alining Engineers. 1871.
a manager, 1872-75, and its jii'esident in 1876 and
again in 1890, the second time being unanimously
elected. He was also elected a member of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science
and he received from the Iron and Steel Institute
of Great Britain at its meeting in New York city
ill 1896 the gold Bessemer medal in recognition
of his services to the industry. He received the
degree of LL.D. from Columbia in 1887. He is the
author of Iron and Steel, a report as U.S. commis-
sioner to the Paris Exposition of 1867. and A Cen-
tury of Mining and Metallnrcjy in the CnitedSfates,
an adilress made in 1870 wjien he be(vime presi-
dent of the American Institute of Mining Engi-
neers. He died in New York city. Jan. 18. 1903.
HEWITT, John Haskell, educator, was born
at Preston. Conn.. Aug. 8, 18;!5, son of Charles
and Eunice (Witter) Hewitt, and grandson of
Stanton and Lucinda (Clrant) Hewitt and of Jonah
and Eunice (Cady) Witter. He attended acad-
emies at Plainfield and Suffleld, Conn., and was
graduated from Yale college, A.B., 1859; A.M.,
1867, and from Yale Theological seminarj- in
18G3. He was a post graduate student at Yale
and librarian of the Brothers in Unity Society
lilirary and assistant in the Yale College library,
186:5-65; professor of Latin language and litera-
ture at Olivet college, ]\Iich., 186.5-75, and acting-
president, 1872-75; professor of Latin and Greek
in Lake Forest university. III.. 187.5-81, and
acting-president. 1877-78; .studied ami travelled
in Germany and Italy. 1881-82,:ind was elected
Garfield professfH" of ancient languages in W'ill-
iams college in 1882. The year 1892-93 was spent
