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Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist, and lawyer who was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887 to 1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1876 to 1877.
The son-in-law of the industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper, Hewitt is best known for his work with the Cooper Union, which he aided Cooper in founding in 1859, and for planning the financing and construction of the first line of what would eventually develop into the New York City Subway, for which he is considered the "Father of the New York City Subway System".
Hewitt earned a scholarship to attend Columbia College. After graduating from the college in 1842, he taught mathematics there, and became a lawyer several years later.
From 1843 to 1844, Hewitt traveled to Europe with his student, Edward Cooper, the son of industrialist entrepreneur Peter Cooper, and another future New York City mayor. During their return voyage, the pair were together. After this, Hewitt became "virtually a member of the Cooper family", and in 1855 married Edward's sister, Sarah Amelia. The Dictionary of American National Biography, Oxford University Press, (2000) "Cooper Hewitt Family at Ringwood Manor"
Hewitt supervised the construction of the Cooper Union, Peter Cooper's free educational institution, and chaired its board of trustees until 1903.
After defeating James O'Brien, his successor in Congress who was a staunch opponent of Tammany Hall, for the Democratic nomination in the 10th district during the 1880 elections, Hewitt regained his old seat and once again served in the U.S. House from 4 March 1881 to 30 December 1886. Hewitt's most famous speech was made at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1883.
Hewitt refused to review the Saint Patrick's Day parade, a decision that alienated much of the Democratic Party's Irish Americans base in the city. Hewitt also refused to allow Tammany the control of patronage they wanted, and Croker saw to it that Hewitt was not nominated for a second term.
Hewitt was considered a defender of sound financial management. He is quoted as saying "Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation". Hewitt also upheld the civil service reform in the United States. He oversaw the passage of the Rapid Transit Act of 1894, which would provide public funding for the construction of the first New York City Subway line.
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Hewitt as the twenty-sixth-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.
One of Hewitt's investments handled by Rogers and Page was the Loup Creek Estate in Fayette County, West Virginia. The Deepwater Railway was a subsidiary initially formed by the Loup Creek investors to ship bituminous coal from coal mines on their land a short distance to the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) along the Kanawha River. After rate disputes, the short line railroad was eventually expanded to extend all the way into Virginia and across that state to a new coal pier at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads. It was renamed the Virginian Railway.
In 1890 Hewitt partnered with Edward Cooper and Hamilton McKown Twombly in forming the American Sulphur Company, which then entered into a 50/50 agreement with Herman Frasch and his partners to form the Union Sulphur Company.
In 1876, he was elected president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and was a founder and trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Science. He was also a trustee of Barnard College and of the American Museum of Natural History.
Hewitt's daughters, Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, built a decorative arts collection that was for years exhibited at the Cooper Union and later became the core collection of the Cooper-Hewitt. His son, Peter Cooper Hewitt (1861–1921), was a successful inventor, while another son, Edward Ringwood Hewitt (1865–1957), was also an inventor, a chemist and an early expert on fly-fishing. He published Telling on the Trout, among other books.
Hewitt's youngest son, Erskine Hewitt (1871–1938), was also a lawyer and philanthropist in New York City. He donated Ringwood Manor to the State of New Jersey in 1936. On February 18, 1909, Erskine Hewitt was named a director of the newly formed National Reserve Bank of the City of New York. On March 2, 1909, Hewitt was elected chairman.
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