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Highland Township Historical Society
Highland, Oakland County, Michigan |
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BIOGRAPHIES MAIN PAGE
HEWITT, JOHN S.
Portrait
and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan, Chapman Bros. (1891), pp. 207-208
JOHN S. HEWITT. One of the best stocked and
most attractive business houses in Milford is that of Mr. Hewitt, where a
full line of drugs is kept on sale, together with a well-selected stock of books and
stationery, paints and oils. The business is the most extensive of the kind in the
town, and a brick store two stories high with a basement, is the site. The edifice
was built for his own use by Mr. Hewitt a few years after opening up in
business here. He has made a study of the drug trade and is careful in his
selection, receiving goods from only the best and most reliable wholesalers, and he also
exercises great care in the compounding of prescriptions.
The father of our subject was Benjamin Hewitt, a native of Willimantic,
Conn., who was reared on a farm, but in early manhood engaged in the grocery business.
About 1832 he came to this county and beginning with an eighty-acre tract, improved
property at Highland Corners and engaged in general farming
and stock-raising. At the time of his decease he owned one hundred acres of improved
land and his property covered three corners. He died in 1880 at the venerable age of
eighty-two years. He was a Democrat in politics and a Baptist in religion. He
married Ann Perry, who was born in the same vicinity as himself and whose
father was a cousin of the renowned Commodore Perry. They were of English descent.
Mrs. Hewitt lived to the age of eighty-one years. She had
six children - George J., who died at thirty-six years of age; Mary
A., whose home is in Highland; Elizabeth J.,
formerly the wife of Judge Giles T. Brown, who died in Ithica; Windham
W., an old soldier, now living on the old homestead; John S.,
subject of this sketch; and Olive E., who died when nineteen years old.
At Highland, January 4, 1843, our subject was born. and there
he grew to the age of seventeen years. He had the district school privileges and
learned considerable of agricultural affairs. At the age mentioned he began clerking
in a general store at Hartland, Livingston County, and acting as Assistant Postmaster, but
the next year he returned home and took charge of his father's farm while his brother Windham
served his country on Southern battlefields. A few years later he took charge of his
brother's store and in 1865 he began the study of dental surgery at Fenton with E.
G. Miles, D. S. He also made some study of medicine and more of the nature
of drugs, under Miles & Dunlap, and liking the drug business, soon gave it his entire
attention and abandoned dentistry. In 1869 he located in Milford, renting a new
store into which he put a new stock of drugs. About three years later he built the
brick in which he now carries on business.
If Mr. Hewitt can be said to have a hobby it is certainly fine horses.
He las raised standard-bred equines of the Morgan and Hambletoniarf strains and now
owns some very fine animals. One is "Fellow-craft," a Morgan, bred in
Kentucky, which has taken several first premiums. It is a noble animal of a fine
chestnut color, well proportioned and graceful in action. Another of Mr.
Hewitt's horses is "Myrtie P," a Morgan filly, bred in Kentucky, and
"Kitty Wood," a fine roadster who has taken several first premiums. Mr.
Hewitt has carried away the blue ribbon from various fairs, and to see him
spinning down the street behind one of his thoroughbreds is a sight to rejoice the hearts
of all horse lovers. Mr. Hewitt owns five acres within the
corporation and has a handsome residence.
In Corfu, N. Y., in 1870, Mr. Hewitt was married to Miss Eunice
Hills, a native of Akron, that State. She was a graduate of Alexandre
Seminary in Albany, and was a teacher of the first grade. Her father, James
Hills, a farmer, made an early settlement in this State, but after some years
sold his property and returned East. Mrs. Hewitt died [Begin Page 208] in
Milford leaving one child, Herbert W.,who is now attending the High
School in the class of '93. July 13,1882, Mr. Hewitt was again
married, the ceremony being performed in Milford, and the bride, Miss Adelia Greig.
This union has resulted in the birth of one child - Lulu B.
Mrs. Hewitt is the eldest of the eight children of William
and Mary (Tascoll) Greig, and was born in Detroit February 23, 1854.
She lived in that city several years, then in Dearborn, and was sixteen years old
when she came to Milford. She finished her education in the Union School here.
Her father was born in Scotland, and after he became a man, emigrated and located
in Detroit. There he worked as a contractor and builder, and after his removal to
Milford he took up the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds. Thence he went to
South Lyon, where he had large interests in church and school furniture. Mrs.
Greig was born in Detroit and was the daughter of one of its early settlers.
Both parents belonged to the Presbyterian Church and their daughter is an equally
consistent member and connected with the Home Mission Society.
Mr. Hewitt was Secretary of the Milford Agricultural Society two years
and Treasurer one year, and is still a stockholder. He helped organize the
association and was an officer until care for his health compelled him to resign. He
is a demitted member of the Odd Fellows and belongs to Liberty Lodge of the Michigan
United Friends. He is a member of the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Society.
Politically he is a Republican.
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