Hewitt, William (Died)

A pioneer of the district passed on Friday, Dec. 29, 1922, when William Hewitt, of Beamsville, died at his home there. Mr. Hewitt was born in the township of Grimsby (opposite the foot of the Woolverton mountain) on April 9, 1838, and was therefore in his 85th year. He was the eldest of the family and the only survivor of the family of Thomas C. Hewitt of Grimsby and Los Angeles. As a young man he went to live at Mount Pleasant in Brant County, and from there came to Beasmville with Alanson Harris who had bought the Colladay foundry and saw-mill. Harris started the manufacture of a revolving wooden horse rake and eventually Mr. Hewitt along with James McKay took over the business and carried on the manufacture of this rake, one of which stands in the Hewitt barn in Beamsville today. Later he moved to London and about 50 years ago in conjuction with his brother John started the manufacture of flat ribbon-like barbed wire fencing. They were heavily interested in that industry in Chicago when the great fire of 1871 wiped out their business, and from then on Mr. Hewitt was in various businesses up to the financial panic of 1893, since which time he has lived quietly in Beamsville. He was a veteran of the Fenian Raid of 1866, and in September of the same year he married Margaret Jane Cornwall of Beamsville, who predeceased him in July 1922. In 1914 they celebrated their golden wedding. Mr. Hewitt for several years was a member of the Beamsville council and was chairman of the waterworks committee when the large reservoir (the second one) was built. The remains were interred in Queen's Lawn Cemetery, Grimsby, on Sunday, Dec. 31.