History of Haverstraw, (Rockland County) New York United States of America

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Abram Stevens Hewitt, representative, was born in Haverstraw, N.Y., July 31, 1822; son of John and Ann (Gurnee) Hewitt. He removed with his parents to New York city, where he attended the public school and gained a scholarship at Columbia college, where he was graduated with first honors in 1842, receiving his A.M. degree in 1845. 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 classinate, Edward Cooper. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and practised in New York for a short time. He gave up the law practice to engage in the manufacture of iron, in which his classmate, Edward Cooper, had just entered as a partner with his father, Peter Cooper, and the firm became Cooper & Hewitt, Mr. Hewitt becoming the manager of the extensive works and mines in New Jersey, at Trenton, Phillipsburg, Ringwood and Pequest. In 1855 he was married to Sarah Amelia, daughter of Peter and Sarah (Bedell) Cooper. Within sixty days after the publication of the results of Bessemer's experiments as set forth in his paper read before the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1856 Mr. Cooper erected at Phillipsburg an experimental Bessemer converter. The civil war created an unusual demand for steel for the manufacture of gun-barrels and in 1862 Mr. Cooper went to Europe to study the process of its manufacture. On his return he supplied the U.S. government with the material at considerably less than the cost of production. He was a U.S. commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1867, 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 American open-hearth furnace under the Martin patents controlled by Cooper & Hewitt, and in 1870 he produced the first high-phosphorus low-carbon steel of commercial value manufactured in the United States. During Mr. Hewitt's management no serious labor trouble disturbed the business 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 willie 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 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th and 49th congresses, 1875-79 and 1881-86, resigning 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 than 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 frequent speaker on fillante, labor, and the development of national resources in connection with the prosecution of U.S. geological surveys. As mayor 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 Mining Engineers, 1871, a manager, 1872-75, and its president 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 in 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. commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1867. and A Century of Mining and Metallurgy in the United States, an address made in 1870 when he became president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. He died in New York city, Jan. 18, 1903.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Haverstraw, (Rockland County) New York

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