HON. JOHN HOGE EWING (deceased) was born in Fayette county, Penn., October 5, 1796, a son of William Porter Ewing, who was a son of George Ewing, of Peach Bottom township, York Co., Penn. The Ewings are of Scotch-Irish ancestry, who early in the last century emigrated from the North of Ireland to this country, settling in East Nottingham, MD. George Ewing was a cousin of the celebrated Dr. John Ewing, who became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia in 1759, and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania in 1779. He was appointed one of the commissioners to determine the boundary controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia, and one of the commissioners to extend the Mason and Dixon line in 1784; he was a vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. William Porter Ewing, son of George, received his education under his distinguished relative's preceptorship, and about the year 1790 came as a surveyor to Fayette county, in this State. Here in 1791 he married Mary, daughter of Jehu Conwell, who had settled in that neighborhood about 1768. A brief record of the children born to this union is as follows: Hon. George Ewing went to Texas, had intimate relations with Gen. Sam Houston, was appointed judge of the State courts, and there his family remain. Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, who was born in 1794 and died in 1874, was a resident of Uniontown, Penn., and for a long time was president judge of the courts of Washington, Fayette and Greene counties. John Hoge Ewing is the subject proper of this sketch. James Ewing lived and died near Brownsville, Penn. Elizabeth who was married to James E. Breading, died February 11, 1892, near Pittsburgh, at the age of ninety-three years. Maria, the widow of Hon. James Veech, lives at Emsworth, Penn. Ellen, married to John H. Wallace, of New York, died in 1891. Louisa, widow of William Wilson, of Uniontown, Penn., died July 10, 1892. Mary Ann is the widow of George Meason, of Muscatine, Iowa.
John Hoge Ewing came to Washington College in 1810, and made his home with Hon. John Hoge, after whom he was named. Mr. Hoge and Mr. Ewing's father had been surveyors together in early days, and under Col. Thomas Stokely laid out large tracts of land, of the purchase of 1784, north and west of the Allegheny river. Mr. Ewing graduated at Washington College in 1814, read law in the office of Hon. Thomas McGiffin; was admitted to the bar in 1818, and for a year or two was partner with his preceptor. Later, he and his father, William P. Ewing, obtained a contract to construct the road-bed of the National road from Brownsville to Hillsborough, which contract was completed in 1820. Mr. Ewing never went back to the bar. He purchased the tract, known as the "Meadow Lands," three miles north of Washington, where he lived until 1840, in which year he removed to the borough of Washington, where he passed the remainder of his useful life, dying June 9, 1887, at the patriarchal age of ninety-one years. On November 2, 1820, Mr. Ewing was united in marriage to Ellen, daughter of James Blaine, Esq., and sister of Ephraim L. Blaine, father of the Hon. James G. Blaine. The children born to them were Margaret B., widow of Dr. William A. Hallock, of Pittsburgh; Rev. William Ewing, Ph. D. of Canonsburg; James Blaine Ewing (1), who died in childhood; Elizabeth B., wife of Rev. William Speer, D.D., missionary to China and the Chinese in California, and corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education in Philadelphia; Dr. George Ewing, of the Department of the Interior at Washington, D.C.; Nathaniel, who died in youth; Col. John Ewing, of Pittsburgh; Mary L., wife of Rev. Henry Woods, D.D., professor of Latin in Washington and Jefferson College; Ann Ellen, who died young; James Blaine Ewing (2) who died in childhood; and Samuel Blaine Ewing, a sketch of whom follows this. On August 26, 1840, soon after the birth of her youngest child, the mother of this family died at her residence in Washington. August 12, 1845, Mr. Ewing was married to Margaret C., daughter of Richard Brown, who after the death of her parents in her childhood, had been brought up and educated by her uncle, Bishop H. B. Bascom, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of this union there were born two children: Clara Bascom, who died at about the age of ten years, and Florence Bell, yet living.
In 1835-36 Mr. Ewing represented Washington county in the House of Representatives in Harrisburg; for four years (1838-42) he was State senator; for two sessions (1844-45 and 1845-46) he represented the old District of Washington and Beaver counties in Congress. In 1831 he was associated with Hon. Thomas H. Baird in the construction of a railway up the Chartiers Valley, but the people not being ready to support the undertaking, it was abandoned, to be renewed thirty years later, at which time the road-bed was partly graded, and in 1869 the road was successfully completed. The final success is to be attributed chiefly to Mr. Ewing's efforts and personal sacrifices. After declining a renomination to Congress, in 1846, Mr. Ewing did not again enter public life, but devoted his time mainly to his private business, which was quite extensive, as he was the owner of a large amount of property in both this county and in West Virginia. He was especially interested in the educational institutions of the county; from 1834 he was a member of the board of trustees of Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) College, and for many years he was a member of the board of trustees of Washington Female Seminary. In 1852 he was appointed a trustee of the First Presbyterian congregation of Washington, of which he was a prominent member. In old Colonial times, by the authority of law, "Peacemakers" were regularly appointed to compose the differences of litigants and settle disputes without having recourse to law, and perhaps no other individual so often and so successfully intervened between parties in legal contest, and brought about satisfactorily a compromise of their controversies, as Mr. Ewing.
Samuel Blaine Ewing was born in Washington, August 12, 1840. He received his education at the public schools of the city, and afterward at Washington and Jefferson College. His first vocation in life was as clerk in the iron business of Lyon, Shorb & Co., in Huntingdon county and in Pittsburgh; he was then for several years in the drug business in Pittsburgh, but his health failing, he returned to the farm at the Meadow Lands, where he resided until the death of his father. He then removed into Washington. Mr. Ewing was married in 1868, in Augusta, Ky., to Miss Matilda B., daughter of Judge William C. Marshall, of Kentucky. This lady died July 17, 1892. The children born to the union are Margaret H., wife of Mat. H. Stevenson, of Pittsburgh, William Marshall and Henry W. Mr. Ewing is at present engaged in the insurance and real estate business in Washington, and is secretary of the Washington Electric Street Railroad. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, and in politics is a Republican.
Text taken from page 44 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed April 1997 by Betty Stewart of Pittsburgh, PA as part of the Beers Project.
Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]