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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 26, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 338-339
JOHN F. HEWTTT. The clerk of the County Court of
Barbour County is one of the most popular and efficient
members of the Court House circle at Philippi. The dis-
tinctive feature of his career has been his determination and
ability to rise above his environment and find the work for
which he has unique talent and qualifications.
Mr. Hewitt was born on a farm in Valley District of Bar-
bour County July 12, 1872. His grandfather came to West
Virginia from Pennsylvania, settling in Barbour County.
He was one of the early teachers in that locality. His
family consisted of three sons and three daughters. The
sons were: John, Joel and Hiram. The daughters were:
Margaret, who married Benjamin Tallman, Mrs. Jane
Phillips and Purdy.
Joel Hewitt spent his life in Barbour County as a farmer
and died in Valley District in 1917, when past eighty-three
years of age. He secured only a limited education, was
a republican voter, and a member of the United Brethren
Church. He married Hulda Hayes, whose father, Isaac
Hayes, was a shoemaker and farm owner in Barker
District of Barbour County. Mrs. Hulda Hewitt died in
1918, when almost eighty years of age. Her children were:
John Franklin; Perry, connected with a lumber mill in
Randolph County; and Hayes, a farmer in Valley District.
John F. Hewitt grew up in a community where work in
the field or in the woods was regarded as the maximum
qualification for earning a livelihood and achieving one's
destiny. He had only such advantages as the country schools
offered. When he was about twenty years of age he left
the farm to become a teacher, and for nine years had charge
of country schools and during the summer vacations at-
tended school himself. His last work as a teacher was done
at Junior in Barbour County. He left the schoolroom to
establish and conduct a barber shop at Junior and learn the
trade from his employe. For fifteen years he had a shop at
Belington and later at Philippi. While conducting his shop
he was a student in the West Virginia Business College
at Clarksburg, where he graduated.
Mr. Hewitt's great gift and talent is skill in penmanship.
Few penmen have acquired the art or mastery of the pen to
such a high degree. This talent manifested itself during
his childhood, but was never encouraged at home. "John
is a good writer" was the common remark about home
but his writing was regarded as something of a curiosity
or freak and not as a means by which he could render
peculiar service to the world. Therefore, the talent lay
dormant until he was a man of nearly middle age, when he
awakened it himself through correspondence courses with
several schools. Mr. Hewitt made his first penholder out
of a stick, which he split at one end so as to insert a pen
and secured it by wrapping the end with thread. He also
made his first ink out of pokeberries. In penmanship Mr.
Hewitt holds diplomas specifying to his skill and proficiency
from the Francis B. Courtney School of Penmanship of
Detroit, from P. W. Tamblyn of Kansas City, Missouri, and
from the Sexter Business College of Worcester, Ohio.
About the time he graduated from business college he
became a clerk with the Consolidated Coal Company at
Berryburg, West Virginia, but before the end of a year
returned to Philippi and was elected and served two years
as city clerk. He then became deputy under Sheriff Ken-
nedy, and held that office four years. In 1920 he was elected
county clerk, and entered upon his duties January 1, 1921,
as the successor of S. F. Hoxnan. He defeated his pred-
ecessor for the office in the primary, and in the election
received a majority of 1,310 votes.
While a resident of Belington Mr. Hewitt married, on
March 21, 1896, Miss Margaret Monahan, who was born in
Valley District, Barbour County, daughter of Andrew and
Emily (Wiseman) Monahan, farmers. Mrs. Hewitt, who
received a public school education, is the second in a family
of ten sons and three daughters, the other children surviv-
ing being Henry, William, Simon, Irvin, Archie, Ray, Mrs.
Jessie Perkins of Richmond, Virginia, and Ethel, who is
married and lives in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt have
three children and two grandchildren. Their oldest daugh-
ter, Lillie May, is the wife of Charles Leary, of Richmond,
Virginia, and they have a son, called W., Jr. The second
daughter, Ella Pearl, is the wife of Charles Marple, of
Grafton, and has a son, Charles Lee. The only son of Mr.
and Mrs. Hewitt is Andrew Archie, who is now in the United
States Navy.
During the World war Mr. Hewitt was deputy sheriff,
and much of his time was devoted to assisting the selective
service men in filling out their questionnaires, fraternally
he is affiliated with the Junior Order United American
Mechanics and the Knights of Pythias, and is a member
of the Missionary Baptist Church.
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