The son-in-law of the industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper, Hewitt is best known for his work with the Cooper Union, which he aided Cooper in founding in 1859, and for planning the financing and construction of the first line of what would eventually develop into the New York City Subway, for which he is considered the "Father of the New York City Subway System".[1]
Hewitt earned a scholarship to attend Columbia College. After graduating from the college in 1842, he taught mathematics there, and became a lawyer several years later.[when?]
From 1843 to 1844, Hewitt traveled to Europe with his student, Edward Cooper, the son of industrialist entrepreneur Peter Cooper, and another future New York City mayor. During their return voyage, the pair were shipwrecked together. After this, Hewitt became "virtually a member of the Cooper family", and in 1855 married Edward's sister, Sarah Amelia.[2][3]
Corporate career
Hewitt between 1855 and 1865
In 1845, financed by Peter Cooper, Hewitt and Edward Cooper started an iron mill in Trenton, New Jersey, the Trenton Iron Company, where, in 1854, they produced the first structural wrought iron beams, as well as developing other innovative products. Hewitt's younger brother, Charles, was a manager at the iron mill. Hewitt also invested in other companies, in many case serving on their boards.[4]
Hewitt supervised the construction of the Cooper Union, Peter Cooper's free educational institution, and chaired its board of trustees until 1903.[4]
Political career
Artists' conception, by Currier and Ives, of the bridge while construction was underway, 1872
After defeating James O'Brien, his successor in Congress who was a staunch opponent of Tammany Hall, for the Democratic nomination in the 10th district during the 1880 elections, Hewitt regained his old seat and once again served in the U.S. House from 4 March 1881 to 30 December 1886.[5] Hewitt's most famous speech was made at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1883.[6]
Mayor of New York City
Hewitt was elected mayor of New York City in 1886. He defeated the labor candidate Henry George as well as the Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt. Hewitt's election campaign had the support of Tammany Hall. The endorsement was formal and included organizational muscle.[7]
Hewitt refused to review the Saint Patrick's Day parade, a decision that alienated much of the Democratic Party's Irish–American base in the city. Hewitt also refused to allow Tammany the control of patronage they wanted,[4] and Croker saw to it that Hewitt was not nominated for a second term.[8]
Hewitt was considered a defender of sound financial management. He is quoted as saying "Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation". Hewitt also upheld the civil service reform in the United States. He oversaw the passage of the Rapid Transit Act of 1894, which would provide public funding for the construction of the first New York City Subway line.[9]: 19–20
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Hewitt as the twenty-sixth-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.[10]
Entrepreneurial career
Hewitt had many investments in natural resources, including considerable holdings in West Virginia, where William Nelson Page (1854–1932) was one of his managers. He was also an associate of Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909), a financier and industrialist who was a key man in the Standard Oil Trust, and a major developer of natural resources.
As philanthropist Hewitt was interested in education. Columbia University gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1887, and he was the president of its alumni association in 1883, and a trustee from 1901 until his death.
Abram Hewitt died at his New York City home on January 18, 1903, and was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. His last words, after he took his oxygen tube from his mouth, were "And now, I am officially dead."[12]
Hewitt's daughters, Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, built a decorative arts collection that was for years exhibited at the Cooper Union and later became the core collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. His son, Peter Cooper Hewitt (1861–1921), was a successful inventor, while another son, Edward Ringwood Hewitt (1865–1957), was also an inventor, a chemist and an early expert on fly-fishing. He published Telling on the Trout, among other books.
Hewitt's youngest son, Erskine Hewitt (1871–1938), was also a lawyer and philanthropist in New York City. He donated Ringwood Manor to the State of New Jersey in 1936.[13] On February 18, 1909, Erskine Hewitt was named a director of the newly formed National Reserve Bank of the City of New York.[14] On March 2, 1909, Hewitt was elected chairman.[15]
Legacy
Abram Hewitt Memorial Building of Cooper Union in Cooper Square, ManhattanThe fireboat Abram S. Hewitt in 1903
One of Cooper Union's academic buildings was named in his honor. It was demolished and replaced by 41 Cooper Square in 2007. An historic twenty-foot column in the Hewitt Building designed by Stanford White was transported—appropriately enough—to its former home at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where it now stands on Abram S. Hewitt's memorial plot.[16]
^Daniel Czitrom (2016). New York Exposed: The Gilded Age Police Scandal that Launched the Progressive Era. Oxford University Press. p. 87. ISBN9780199837014.