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Below is a family biography included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published by Biographical Publishing Company in 1898.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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H. O. JEWETT, M. D. The family of Dr. Jewett is of Norman origin. His ancestors emigrated from the North of England and settled in the eastern part of Massachusetts about the middle of the Seventeenth Century. His grandfather was Stephen Jewett, a native of the Bay State, and his father was Walter Jewett, who had two older brothers, who served through the Revolutionary War, and a younger brother, the Rev. Stephen Jewett of New Haven, Conn., whose son, Dr. Pliny A. Jewett, was a professor in the medical department of Yale College, and afterward a surgeon in the Union Army during the Rebellion.

Walter Jewett married Betsey Rockwell, and removed from Lanesborough, Mass., to the town of Lebanon, Madison County, N. Y., in June, 1806, where he purchased a densely timbered farm, most of which he eventually cleared with his own hands. He afterwards bought more property, until his possessions embraced an area of nearly three hundred acres. Seven daughters and two sons were born on the homestead, of whom Dr. Jewett was the youngest but one, a sister, who died in childhood. All the rest of the family grew to adult life, and five of them reached an advanced age. Our subject’s father built a school-house on his own premises, where his own and some neighboring children obtained their education, for the nearest district school was quite distant. In order to secure better educational advantages for his family, Mr. Jewett removed to the town of Homer in the spring of 1832, and purchased the farm, a part of which is occupied by Glenwood Cemetery, a half mile west of Homer village.

Dr. Jewett obtained his academical training at the Cortland Academy (in Homer) under the supervision of Prof. Samuel B. Woolworth. To further perfect his education, he spent three years alternating study with teaching school. In 1839, he entered the office of Dr. A. B. Shipman, still alternating the study of medicine with school teaching, the latter occupation being pursued in order to obtain means wherewith to defray the expenses of his lecture courses. Much of the time he devoted fifteen of the twenty-four hours to study and teaching, a severe mental strain, which he deemed necessary for the attainment of his object. He attended the first two courses of lectures delivered in the Medical Department of the University of New York City, and graduated from that institution in March, 1843.

The two instructors whom Dr. Jewett has ever held in most grateful remembrance were Prof. Woolworth of Homer, N. Y., and Prof. Martyn Paine of the New York University. Dr. Paine was his oracle — in him he saw only what was wise and noble and generous. In alluding to him, his favorite exclamation has been — “How wise and good he was!” Dr. Paine proffered him the use of his private office and library, giving him many valuable books and much good advice, altogether giving him to understand that he was a favorite student, which proved a salutary stimulus to our subject’s ambition.

After graduating, Dr. Jewett practiced a few weeks with his preceptor in Cortland, and then located at Summer Hill, where he engaged at once in a full, laborious and versatile practice, without any local competition. In 1849, he came to Cortland, where he was in active practice until failing health began to admonish him to retire from arduous labor. For nearly fifty years it has been his rule never to refuse a call to which he could attend, regardless of the inclemency of the weather, the condition of the roads, the time of day or night, or the circumstances of his patrons. His rides in answer to calls for medical assistance have been in all directions, and embrace a territory, throughout which the highways and byways are as familiar to him by night as by day. It is believed that he has traveled as many miles, responded to as many night calls, and buffeted more storms and struggled through more snow drifts in the pursuit of his vocation than any other practitioner in this vicinity in his time. Much of his reading has been accomplished by night, or while riding in his carriage by day. He was very fond of intelligent, faithful horses, that would learn to appreciate his kindness, and has enjoyed many a comfortable nap in his carriage behind a sagacious horse that knew his duty well, and would stop without a bidding if a mishap occurred.

The Doctor has never meddled with politics, or sought political preferment, and never engaged in enterprises outside of his profession. He has seldom enjoyed a vacation or been absent from his duties, confining himself strictly to the practical requirements of his calling. He has been for many years a member of his County Society, and has been several times a delegate to the New York State Medical Society. He is a member of the National Medical Association, and also of the New York Medico-Legal Society. He was one of the founders of the New York State Medical Association, was for several years one of its council, vice-president, and president of the Third Branch of the Association. He has occasionally contributed to medical literature in the professional journals, and furnished some practical papers for publication in the transactions of the different medical societies.

Like most of the older practitioners of medicine, he has been indulgent to the poor, and altogether too lenient with many who were well able to pay. Otherwise, he would have some time ago been possessed of an ample fortune. He is the oldest physician in Cortland County, and now only retires from practice under the stress of declining health and strength. Like so many others in his profession, excellence in practice, rather than the fee, appeared to be his chief aim. Dr. Jewett was accurate in diagnosis and safe in operating. He was cautious and conservative in all his treatment, striving to work in harmony with the curative efforts of nature. He often spoke of recoveries, but not as cures. Having been the family physician of a large number of the older inhabitants of the vicinity, he was proverbially kind and attentive to the sick, rich and poor alike, oftentimes without any hope of reward, save only Heaven’s “Well done!”

Dr. Jewett’s family consists of a wife and two sons — one son, G. S. P. Jewett, a merchant in Utica; the other, A. M. Jewett, the jeweler in Cortland. Both enjoy the esteem and confidence of the community around them.

As the oldest and most representative physician in Cortland County, whose life has been one uninterrupted season of doing good, it gives us pleasure to present our subject’s portrait on a preceding page in proximity to this.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published in 1898. 

View additional Cortland County, New York family biographies here: Cortland County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Cortland County, New York here: Cortland County, New York Map

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