Hugh J. Jewett

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]

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]

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]

Notes

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.

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