Summary Information
Joseph Hewitt and Lydia Hewitt Bennison Papers
1848-1890
- Hewitt, Joseph, 1811-1888
- Bennison, Lydia Hewitt, 1844-1885
Micro 659
1 reel of microfilm (35mm)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Joseph Hewitt, an itinerant minister of the Primitive Methodist Connexion in southwestern Wisconsin, and his daughter Lydia. Joseph's papers include correspondence, ministerial papers, and diaries, 1848-1885, recording his travels, statistics on the churches he served, discussions of doctrine and other ministers, and observations on the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination. Lydia's diaries, 1880-1885, record daily activities and her reactions to the progressive consumption which eventually caused her death.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0659 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
JOSEPH HEWITT, an itinerant Methodist minister, was born in Birmingham, England, on December 21, 1811. Raised in Liverpool, he moved to America at the age of nineteen and settled in Philadelphia. It was there that his life changed as he experienced a religious conversion. As his great-great-granddaughter, Genevieve Post, wrote in a short introduction to his journal, Hewitt “was a rulermaker, ne'erdowell, boozer, and came to Christ.” After his conversion, Hewitt returned to England and married Eliza Johnson in 1835. In the fall of 1847 he was authorized to preach as a minister of the Primitive Methodist Connexion Church, an English Methodist sect which stressed camp meetings and maintained itinerant and local preachers. In 1848 Hewitt moved his wife and two daughters, Lydia and Priscilla, to Platteville, Wisconsin. For the next thirty years he preached on most of the parish circuits of the Western Conference of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, which encompassed nine counties in southwestern Wisconsin. On occasion he took circuits in Racine County, Wisconsin, and Henry County, Illinois, and also served congregations in Janesville, Platteville, and Mineral Point, but he continued to preach as needed until his death on January 30, 1888.
LYDIA HEWITT BENNISON, the eldest daughter of Joseph and Eliza Hewitt, was born in 1844. Little is known of her early life except that she was married; had two sons, Lincoln and Sherman; and was widowed around 1867. Following the death of her husband, she lived with her parents and helped them with their church work until her death from consumption on August 5, 1885.
Scope and Content Note
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.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Originals loaned for microfilming by John R. Wrage, Madison, Wisconsin, 1977. Accession Number: M77-372
Processed by Tom Hughes and Christine Rongone, January 11, 1978.
Contents List
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Joseph Hewitt Papers
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Reel
1
Frame
1
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Correspondence, 1876-1887
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Journal, 1848-1885
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Reel
1
Frame
47
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Volume 1
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Reel
1
Frame
182
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Volume 2
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Reel
1
Frame
233
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Transcription of volumes
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Reel
1
Frame
407
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Ministerial Papers, 1848-1887
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Reel
1
Frame
586
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Obituary, 1890
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Lydia Hewitt Bennison Diary, 1880-1885
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Reel
1
Frame
592
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Volume 1
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Reel
1
Frame
709
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Volume 2
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