Hugh J. Jewett

Hugh Judge Jewett (July 1, 1817 – March 6, 1898) was an American railroader and politician. He served as the United States representative from Ohio's 12th congressional district in the 43rd United States Congress.^[1]

Hugh Judge Jewett
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 12th district
In office March 4, 1873 – June 23, 1874
Preceded by	Philadelph Van Trump
Succeeded by	William E. Finck
Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Muskingum County
In office January 6, 1868 – January 2, 1870
Preceded by	A.W. Shipley Perry Wiles
Succeeded by	Edward Ball Elias Ellis
Member of the Ohio Senate from the 15th district
In office January 2, 1854 – January 6, 1856
Preceded by	William E. Finck
Succeeded by	Eli A. Spencer
Personal details
Born	(1817-07-01)July 1, 1817 Harford County, Maryland
Died	March 6, 1898(1898-03-06) (aged 80) Augusta, Georgia
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Zanesville, Ohio
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Sarah Jane Ellis ​ ​ (m. 1840; died 1850)​ Sarah Elizabeth Guthrie ​ ​ (m. 1853)​
Relations	Joshua Jewett (brother) Julia Hoyt (granddaughter)
Children	7
Parent(s)	John Jewett Susannah Judge
Signature

Early life

Jewett was born at Harford County, Maryland, but spent most of his life in Ohio at Zanesville and Columbus.^[2] He was the son of John Jewett (1777–1854) and Susannah Judge (1778–1853).^[3] He was also the younger brother of Joshua Husband Jewett (1815–1861), a United States Congressman from Kentucky.^[4]

Career

He attended Hopewell Academy in Chester County, Pennsylvania, before moving to Ohio as a young man and attending Hiram College. He was admitted to the bar at St. Clairsville in 1840 after studying with James Black Groome, who later became Governor of Maryland. He formed a law practice with Isaac Eaton, who became a prominent lawyer in Kansas.^[3]

In 1848, he moved to Zanesville, where he formed a law practice with John O'Neill, a member of Congress. He also served as president of the Muskingum branch of the State Bank of Ohio in 1852.^[1] In 1857, he served as president of the Central Ohio Railroad Company and organized the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad Company as well as the Pennsylvania Railroad.^[1][5]

In 1852, he was presidential elector, and supported Franklin Pierce for president.^[2] He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio State Senate. In 1860, he ran for Congress and, in 1861, for Ohio Governor. He was a candidate for the United States Senate in 1863, losing each time as a Democrat.^[2] From March 4, 1873, to June 23, 1874, he served as United States Representative from Ohio's 12th congressional district in the 43rd United States Congress.^[1]

Jewett resigned his seat on June 23, 1874, and moved to New York City in order to become president of the Erie Railroad,^[6] which he served from July 1874 until October 1884.^[7] At the beginning of his tenure, the railroad was reorganized as the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad.^[8] On June 22, 1880, he led the railroad in converting from a 6 ft (1,829 mm) broad gauge to standard gauge, 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm). In 1884,^[9] he retired from the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad and resided in New York City until his death.^[2]

The borough of Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania, is named for him, as he was president of the NYLE&WRR when it brought rail service to that area.^[10]

Personal life

On June 20, 1840, Jewett was married to Sarah Jane Ellis (1819–1850) in St. Clairsville, Ohio.^[3] Sarah was one of five daughters born to Judge Ezer and Nancy (née McKinley) Ellis.^[11] One of her sisters was married to Ohio Governor Wilson Shannon, another to Rep. William Kennon, another to George Washington Manypenny, and another to Col. Isaac Eaton.^[11] Her mother was related to President William McKinley.^[3] Together, they were the parents of:^[3]

• John Ellis Jewett (1841–1895), who served in the U.S. Civil War and who married Emma Stevens, and later, Bessie Jacobs.^[3]
• Mary Kennon Jewett (1843–1849), who died young.^[3]
• George Manypenny Jewett (1845–1915), an inventor^[12] who married Helen M. Applegate (1849–1923).^[3]
• Charles Clarence Jewett (1849–1879), who died unmarried.^[3]

After his first wife's death in 1850, he remarried to Sarah Elizabeth (née Guthrie) Kelly (1823–1901) in Putnam, Ohio, on April 10, 1853.^[3] Sarah was the widow of Chauncey Regan Kelly, the daughter of Julius Chappell and Pamelia (née Buckingham) Guthrie, and a descendant of Thomas Welles, Chad Brown, Abraham Pierson, and several other prominent colonial figures.^[3] Together, they were the parents of:^[3]

• William Kennon Jewett (1857–1935),^[13] who founded the London Gold Mines Company of Colorado, one of the largest gold mines in the United States.^[14] He commissioned Arden Villa in 1913. He married Elisabeth "Patty" Kyle Stuart (b. 1858) in 1881.^[3][13]
• Helen Pamelia Jewett (b. 1858), who married Thomas Hunt,^[3] the son of Judge William Hunt, ex-Minister to Russia, in 1888.^[15]
• Sarah Guthrie Jewett (1862–1939), who married Julian Wainwright Robbins (d. 1934).^[16][17]

Jewett died on March 6, 1898, at the Bon Air Hotel in Augusta, Georgia.^[18] He was buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Zanesville, Ohio.^[1]

Descendants

Through his daughter Sarah, he was the grandfather of Sarah Jewett Robbins (b. 1890),^[19] a women's suffragist^[20] who was married to John W. Minturn in 1910,^[21] Van Rensselaer Choate King (1880–1927),^[22] from 1918 until their divorce in 1923,^[23] and William Lawrence Marsh.^[24] He was also the grandfather of Julia Wainwright Robbins (1897–1955), the prominent actress who appeared both on stage and in silent films.^[25][26]

References

Notes

1. "JEWETT, Hugh Judge - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
2. Taylor, William A (1900). Ohio in Congress from 1803 to 1901, with notes and sketches of senators and representatives. the XX Century Publishing Company. p. 250.
3. Jewett, Frederic Clarke (1908). History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America; a Record of Edward Jewett, of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and of his two emigrant sons, Deacon Maximilian and Joseph Jewett, settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1639; also of Abraham and John Jewett, early settlers of Rowley, and of the Jewetts who have settled in the United States Since the Year 1800. New York: The Grafton Press. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
4. "JEWETT, Joshua Husband - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
5. Churella, Albert J. (2012). The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 1: Building an Empire, 1846-1917. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 352. ISBN 978-0812207620. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
6. "THE ERIE RAILWAY.; THE ANNUAL ELECTION FOR DIRECTORS. PASSAGE OF IMPORTANT RESOLUTIONS--MR. HUGH J. JEWETT ELECTED PRESIDENT". The New York Times. 15 July 1874. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
7. Bellesiles, Michael (2010). 1877: America's Year of Living Violently. The New Press. p. 162. ISBN 9781595585943. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
8. Mott, Edward Harold (1901). Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. J.S. Collins. p. 478. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
9. "MR. JEWETT AND ERIE". The New York Times. 12 August 1884. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
10. "Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania History".
11. Cochran, John Salisbury (1907). Bonnie Belmont: A Historical Romance of the Days of Slavery and the Civil War. Press of Wheeling News Lith. Company. p. 236. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
12. The Electrical Engineer. Biggs & Company. 1898. p. 287. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
13. "W. KENNON JEWETT, MINING MAN, DEAD; Head of Colorado Gold Mine Company Was 78 -- Active 'in' Many Philanthropies". The New York Times. 28 August 1935. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
14. "William Kennon Jewett". Colorado Golf Association. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
15. "MR. AND MRS.THOMAS HUNT". The New York Times. 15 April 1888. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
16. "ROBBINS FUNERAL TODAY.; Service for Retired Banker and Broker at St. George's". The New York Times. 14 May 1934. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
17. "J.W. ROBBINS ESTATE IS PUT AT $734,721; Banker's Widow Got Life Interest in Residue". The New York Times. 30 October 1935. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
18. "HUGH J. JEWETT DEAD; The Famous Railroad Financier Passes Away at the Hotel Bon Air, Augusta, Ga. ONCE PRESIDENT OF THE ERIE He Took Hold of the Road When Its Fortunes Had Been Brought Low and Managed It for Many Years". The New York Times. 7 March 1898. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
19. "Cornelia Marsh Templeton". The New York Times. 19 May 1989. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
20. "Mrs. J. Francis Clark, Mrs. Jewett Minturn". loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
21. "MISS BOBBINS BRIDE OF JOHN W. MINTURN; St. George's Church Well Filled at Nuptials of Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Julian W. Robbins. DECORATED WITH FLOWERS Choral Service Precedes One of the Prettiest Weddings of the Winter--Reception at Bride's Home". The New York Times. 1910. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
22. "COL. V. R. C. KING A VICTIM.; Sister Here Notified of New Yorker's Death in Quake at Kobe". The New York Times. 10 March 1927. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
23. "VAN RENSSELAER KINGS DIVORCED TWO YEARS; Decree Granted in Pennsylvania in April, 1923, Ended a Romance Which Began in War Hospital". The New York Times. 22 April 1925. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
24. "MISS NANCY MARSH IS WED AT FORT DIX; Bride in Catholic Chapel of Second Lieut. Peter Nast, Grandson of Publisher". The New York Times. December 21, 1952. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
25. "Julia Hoyt, Film and Stage Beauty, Dead" Chicago Tribune (November 1, 1955): pt. 3, p. 10.
26. "Julia Hoyt, Noted Society Beauty, Dies; Stage and Silent Film Actress Was 58". The New York Times. 1 November 1955. Retrieved 11 September 2017.

Sources

• Kalmbach Publishing (1985), Erie Railroad. Retrieved March 15, 2005.
• Presidents of the Erie Railroad. Retrieved March 15, 2005.
• White, John H. Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154: 9–15. ISSN 0090-7847. JSTOR 43523785. OCLC 1785797.

External links

• United States Congress. "Hugh J. Jewett (id: J000105)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.