Pioneers Of Historic Bramwell

1847 - 1903

Colonel John D. Hewitt Sr. was born in 1847 in Lancashire, England and came with his parents to the United States in 1852. They located in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, where he attended school and later found employment in the antracite coal mines. During the Civil War he served in the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry for two years. In 1886 he brought his family to the Flat-Top Coal Fields. When Colonel Hewitt came to Bramwell he brought his wife, formerly Miss Nancy Katharine Reedy of Pennsylvania , whom he had married in 1876. They had six children, Maude, Frank, Dick, Florance, Stevenson and John.

In 1886 John D. Hewitt, Sr., B. Moore, J.B. Stevenson and William Mullin organized the Hewitt Coal Company, later changed the name to the well known Buckeye Coal and Coke Company. Mr. Hewitt became President and General Manager of this company. As manager of the Buckeye Coal & Coke Company Mr. Hewitt drew $100 per month; the mine foreman drew $75 per month. John Rickman, the blacksmith, got $2 per day.

When Colonel Hewitt first brought his family to Bramwell, they resided over the Buckeye Store in Freeman until they purchased property on Bramwell's Main Stree. After his death, Mrs. Hewitt completed their historic stone "Hewitt House" on Main Street in the Town of Bramwell. Following Colonel Hewitt's term as The Town of Bramwell's first Mayor he became a member of the Republican State Executive Committee. He was a member of the Ivanhoe Commandery, Knights Templar, Benl Deden Shrine and a member of the Episocal Church. His death came in 1903.

As has happened with so many of Bramwell's pioneer families, the fourth and fifth gererations followed careers that did not take them far from home.

BDT 1903 ARTICLE ON JOHN HEWITT'S DEATH

BRAMWELL'S PIONEER INDEX