The Joseph Hewitt papers consist of correspondence, a journal, ministerial papers, and an obituary. The Correspondence is mainly from the period following Hewitt's retirement in 1881 and deals with building his new house in Mineral Point, personal finances, family correspondence, and communications with fellow preachers. The Journal is Hewitt's account of his activities from 1848 to 1885. Included are membership statistics and notes on the annual meetings of the Western Conference of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, reports about people he converted, discussions of the doctrines of his church as contrasted to other Methodist sects, accounts of his troubles in travelling and finding residences, profiles of other ministers and what became of them, and descriptions of the general problems he encountered as an itinerant minister. Of special interest are his observations about the Civil War, the Copperheads, and Lincoln's assassination. A typescript transcription of the journal follows the original.
Hewitt's Ministerial Papers include a small notebook which notes his income, expenditures, deeds, and debts; Bible verses he preached at each of his parishes; church rules and circuit assignments; a notebook of outlines for sermons; and three short essays on general topics. The Obituary (1890) for Hewitt's wife, Eliza, provides useful biographical information about Hewitt and his family.
The Lydia Hewitt Bennison diaries detail the daily life of the Hewitt family in rural western Wisconsin from 1880 to 1885. They also record her reactions to her progressive consumption which eventually caused her death in 1885.
