Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/259

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HE WIT


HEWITT


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to be distinctively Roman Catholic. He visited the south to ward off a threatened pulmonary attack and while there submitted to the teach- ings of the Roman church. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Rey- nolds, of the diocese of Charleston, S.C, and was appointed vice-principal of the Charleston Collegiate institute, March 25, 1847. In 18.50 he en- tered the Redemptor- ist order, taking the religious name of Augustine Francis, and was connected with the Church of the Redeemer, New S4^.^,^J^jU4>^-^ York city, 1851-58. / With Fathers Hec-

ker, Walworth, Baker and Deshon, he inau- gurated the giving of missions to the faith- ful in America, and in 1858 with his co-work- ers he founded the Congregation of the Mis- sionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle in New York city. He served first as a missionary in 1865, took charge of the education of the Paulist students as professor of pliilosophy. theology and Holy Scriptures, and on the deatli of Father Hecker in 1889, succeeded as superior-general of the Congregation. He advocated the higher education of the clergy. He edited the Catholie World, 1869-74, and the "Complete Works of Bishop England" (1850). He was one of the founders of the Catholic University of Amer- ica, an honorary member of its senate, and lecturer on ecclesiastical history. Amherst con- feri-ed on him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1877 and Pope Leo XIII. conferred a similar honor in 1884. He published Reasons for Submitting to the Catholic Church (1846); Life of Princess Borghese (1856); Life of Dumonlin-Borie (1857); Life of the Rev. Francis A. Baker (1865); Prob- lems of the Age (1868); Light in Darkness (ISIO), and 77(6 King's Highway (1874). He died in New York city. July 3, 1897.

HEWIT, Henry Stuart, surgeon, was born in Fairfield, Conn.. Dec. 26, 1825; son of the Rev. Nathaniel and Rebecca W. (Hillhouse) Hewit, and brother of Father Augustine Francis Hewit, superior-general of the Paulists. He was edu- cated at Yale college, but did not graduate. He studied medicine in the University of the City of New York and was graduated M.D. in 1848. The same year lie entered the U.S. army as acting assistant surgeon and was in Vera Cruz, Mexico; and in 1849 he was commissioned assistant surgeon and stationed at Fort Yuma, Cal. He


accompanied Lieut. W. H. Warner of the topo- graphical engineers, on the surveying expedition in which that officer was killed by the Indians. He resigned from the army in 1852, and practised medicine in San Francisco, 1852-55, and in New York city, 1855-61. In 1861 he re-entered the army as brigade-surgeon under Gen. Charles F. Smith, and in 1863 was medical director on the staff of Gen. U. S. Grant, serving at Fort Donel- son, Shiloh and Vicksburg. He subsequently served as staff surgeon to Gen. John M. Scofield. He was brevetted colonel, March 13, 1865, for gallant conduct during the war. He became a convert to the Roman Catholic faith in 1855, and in 1865 made his home in New York city, where he had charge of the House of Good Shepherd, was a director of St. Joseph's Orphan asylum, and was president of the medical board of the New York Charity hospital. He was a member of the New York Academy of Medicine and of the board of New York public school trustees. He died in New York city, Aug. 19, 1873.

HEWIT, Nathaniel, clergyman, was born in New London, Conn., Aug. 28, 1788. He was graduated from Yale in 1808 and began the study of law, which he abandoned for theology. He was licensed to preach by the New London Con- gregational association Sept. 24, 1811, and later entered Andover theological seminary in the class of 1816, but left at the close of the first j-ear and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church at Plattsburgh, N.Y., July 5, 1815. He was pastor at Plattsburgh, 1815-17, and at Fair- field, Conn., 1818-27, and agent of the American temperance society, 1827-30. He visited Europe in 1831; spoke at Exeter Hall June 29, and on Juh^ 19, was present and assisted in forming the British and Foreign Temperance society-. He visited Paris, and spoke to crowded audiences in Birmingham and Livei-pool. He was pastor of the Second Congregational church at Bridgeport, Conn., 1830-53, and first i^astor of the Presby- terian church at Bridgeport, 1853-67. He was an original trustee of the Theological Institute of Connecticut, East Windsor Hill, incorporated May 7, 1834, and was a liberal benefactor of that institution. He was a pioneer in the movement of temperance reform and was called the Apos- tle of Temperance." Amherst conferred ujion him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1830. He was married Sept. 16, 1816, to Rebecca W., daugh- ter of the Hon. James Hillhouse. His wife died Jan. 4, 1831, and on Nov. 14, 1831, and he married Susan, daughter of the Rev. Andrew Eliot of Fairfield, and she died May 1, 1857. Dr. Hewit died in Bridgeport, Conn., Feb. 3, 1867.

HEWITT, Abram Stevens, representative, was born in Haverstraw, N.Y., July 31, 1822; son of John and Ann (Gurnee) Hewitt. He