Hugh Judge Jewett

Background

Jewett was born on July 1, 1817, at Harford County, Maryland, the son of John and Susannah (Judge) Jewett. He was descended from Joseph Jewett who emigrated to America in 1638 and settled in Rowley, Massachusetts.

Education

Jewett studied at Hopewell Academy, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar at Elkton, Maryland, in 1838.

Career

Later Jewett removed to Ohio where he practiced law in St. Clairsville for several years. In 1848 he moved to Zanesville, where he soon achieved a reputation for ability to handle cases involving financial questions. He was elected president of the Muskingum County branch of the state bank in 1852 and later became identified with other banking interests in Zanesville.

An earnest Democrat, he began to take part in politics. In 1853 he was elected to the Ohio state Senate, but he resigned in 1855 to accept an appointment as United States district attorney for the southern district of Ohio. The following year he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. After several unsuccessful candidacies for public office he served one term in the state House of Representatives, 1868-1869, and briefly, 1873-1874, as representative to Congress. He was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate of the Democratic party in 1880. Meanwhile he was developing a special knowledge of railroad affairs.

In 1855 he was elected a director of the Central Ohio Railroad Company, becoming vice-president and general manager in 1856 and president in 1857. The panic of the year 1857 struck the railroad and Jewett was appointed receiver. In 1869 he was elected to the presidency of the Little Miami and Columbus & Xenia Railroads. The following year he was made vice-president of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway, later leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and shortly afterward he became president of the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad. In 1874 he was elected president of the Erie Railway Company at $40, 000 a year, the largest salary paid to a railroad president up to that time. In return he agreed to devote his whole time to the road for a period of ten years. The Erie was then in a thoroughly discredited and embarrassed financial position. It was owned almost entirely by English investors but was managed by an American board which distributed as dividends money which should have gone into improvements.

The panic of 1873 and the rate war of 1874 forced the road into bankruptcy and Jewett was made receiver. In 1878 it was sold under foreclosure for $6, 000, 000 to a reconstruction company and was reorganized as the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company. Jewett was made president of the new board and succeeded in extricating the corporation from the worst of its embarrassments and obtained its release from the jurisdiction of the courts. The road had been crippled, however, by the serious railroad strike of 1877 and by rate wars, so that it was not possible to make it profitable. Jewett moreover followed the policy of putting the earnings back into the property rather than distributing them as dividends.

During the ten years of his presidency he replaced the iron with steel rails, changed the gauge from six feet to standard, completed the double track from New York to Buffalo, improved the terminals, and extended the system in order to effect needed connections with the West. This policy did not please the stockholders and in 1884, upon the expiration of his ten-years' contract, he was succeeded by John King. He then retired to his family homestead in Maryland, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he usually spent the winters in New York City.

Jewett died March 6, 1898, at Augusta, Georgia, and was survived by his wife and six children.

Achievements

• Jewett is best known as President of Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad. During the ten years of his presidency he replaced the iron with steel rails, changed the gauge from six feet to standard, completed the double track from New York to Buffalo, improved the terminals, and extended the system in order to effect needed connections with the W.

Membership

Jewett was a Member of the Ohio Senate from the 15th district from 1854 to 1856, Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Muskingum County from 1868 to 1870, and Member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 12th district from 1873 to 1874.

Connections

Jewett married twice, his first wife being Sarah Jane Ellis, by whom he had four children, and his second wife, Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Kelly (née Guthrie) by whom he had three children.

Father:

John Jewett

Mother:

Susannah Judge

Spouse:

Sarah Elizabeth Guthrie

Spouse:

Sarah Jane Ellis

Daughter:

Sarah Guthrie Jewett

Daughter:

Helen Pamelia Jewett

Daughter:

Mary Kennon Jewett

Son:

John Ellis Jewett

He served in the U.S. Civil War and married Emma Stevens, and later, Bessie Jacobs.

Son:

George Manypenny Jewett

He was an inventor.

Son:

William Kennon Jewett

He founded the London Gold Mines Company of Colorado, one of the largest gold mines in the United States. He commissioned Arden Villa in 1913.

Son:

Charles Clarence Jewett

References

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005
• MANUAL RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES FOR 1879 TOGETHER WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A FULL ANALYSIS OF THE DEBTS OF THE U.S.
• The Great Railroad Revolution: The History of Trains in America
• Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie