George Charles Hewett

(1853 – 1907)

President of the Colorado Scientific Society – 1903

• Mining engineer, born Hampshire, England, came to Colorado 1884. Was consulting engineer for the Colorado Springs Company, Dr. W. A. Bell, the London Mining Company and other large concerns. Chiefly interested in coal properties in Colorado, Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia
• Was trustee of the public library of Colorado Springs
• Was father of Donnel Foster Hewett, famous mining engineer and geologist of the U. S. Geological Survey
• In 1882 was manager of the Kanawha River [West Virginia] Coal and Coke Co. Later operated coal mines in Colorado and Wyoming
• Studied Mining Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
• Won high honors in mining engineering
• Author of articles about coal of northwestern Colorado, iron ore in southwestern Utah, the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, and about the age of the Homestake Lode of South Dakota

Obituary of George C. Hewett

This obituary is from: Colliery Engineer; Mines and Minerals, Volume XXVIII, August, 1907 to July, 1908
Issue for November, 1907, page 160
International Textbook Co., 1908
Scranton, Pa.

Mr. George C Hewett, one of the most prominent mining engineers in America, died suddenly at his residence in Colorado Springs, early on the morning of August 12 [1907]. His death was due to heart failure superinduced by acute gastritis.

Mr. Hewett was born at Sheffield, England, on July 31, 1854. He was the son of Mr. Charles Hewett, who was for many years an extensive operator in iron, coal, and lumber lands in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Hewett was descended on his father’ side from an old Hampshire county family. In October, 1854, when Mr. Hewett was but an infant in arms, he was brought by his father with the rest of the family to America.

His elementary education was received at Mr. Crawford’s Ury House School, at Fox Chase, Philadelphia. He was prepared for college at the Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and was graduated as a mining engineer at the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, in 1871. In 1872 he was appointed engineer of the Westmoreland Coal Co. with headquarters at Irwin, Pa, under Mr. F. Z. Shellenberg, manager, now of Pittsburg, Pa.
Mr. Hewett was married in 1879 to Miss Hetty Barclay Foster, a daughter of Gen. H. D. Foster, of Greensburg, who was successively a member of the State Legislature, of the National Congress, and candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Hewett remained with the Westmoreland Coal Co. until 1882, when he was employed by the Hecla Coke Co., Hecla, Pa., in the design and construction of deep shafts. About a year later he accepted a position as manager of the Winifrede Coal Co.’s mines at Winifrede, W. Va., where he remained for about three years. His wife died in 1884 leaving one son, H. D. Foster Hewett, an analytical chemist now living in Pittsburg, Pa.

On retiring from the service of the Winifrede Coal Co. in 1885, Mr. Hewett went to Colorado where he engaged m silver mining at Aspen, and also in the practice of his profession as a consulting mining engineer. He operated successively the coal mines of the Union Pacific Railroad at Rock Springs, Wyo., and of the Colorado Midland Railway at Sunshine and Vulcan, Colo., until 1892 when he returned to the East. In 1894 he was appointed fuel agent of the Southern Railroad Co., with headquarters at Atlanta, Ga., which office he successfully filled until it was abolished through a reorganization in 1898. In 1895 he married Miss Mary Hilary Sypher, daughter of Gen. J. Hale Sypher of Washington, a former Member of Congress from Louisiana. In 1898 he opened an office as consulting mining engineer in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he remained until the time of his death. At the time of his death Mr. Hewett was consulting engineer for the Colorado Springs Co., owned by Gen. W. J. Palmer, for the London Mining and Tunnel Co., and for several other companies operating in the state. He was a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the Colorado Scientific Society, of which he was president in 1901 [actually 903], and was a trustee of the Carnegie Library, at Colorado Springs. Mr. Hewett is survived by his wife and three sons, H. D. Foster Hewett, and two younger sons. Charles Francis and George Hale Hewett. Although Mr. Hewett’s death was sudden and occurred after a few days’ illness he had been ailing for about two years and his fatal illness was probably due to over exertion in his business.

Aside from his high professional character, Mr. Hewett was a man of very broad mind, interested in many philanthropic and educational matters in ways which were both effective and modest. He was particularly helpful in advice and assistance to worthy younger members of his profession. His professional and personal character were such as to make his death a marked loss to the engineering profession and to the community in which, for a number of years, he made his home and in whose advancement he took an active part.