Biography

06/04/1833 - 03/10/1894

HEWIT, Benjamin Leightner, a Representative from Blair County; born, June 4, 1833 in Petersburg, Huntingdon County, Pa.; attended, Tuscarora and Hollidaysburg Academies; graduated, Princeton College (now Princeton University), 1854; major, paymaster, Company A, Independent Battalion, United States Army (1863-1865, Civil War); lawyer (1856-1894); elected, District Attorney, Blair County (1857-1862); elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a Republican for the 1871 and 1872 terms; appointed, State Fish Commission (1873-1884); reelected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1879, 1881 and 1893 terms; elected, Speaker (1881-1882); not a candidate for reelection to the House (1882); died while in office, March 10, 1894 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; interred, Hollidaysburg Presbyterian Cemetery, Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania.