John Hoge Ewing was a Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

.

John Hoge Ewing, son of William Porter Ewing and Mary Conwell Ewing, was born near Brownsville, Pennsylvania

Brownsville, Pennsylvania

Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, officially founded in 1785 located 35 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River...

 in 1796. In 1814, he graduated from Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh Metro Area in the southwestern part of the state...

. He studied law, was admitted to the Bar in 1818, and commenced practice in Washington, Pennsylvania.

He practiced law for only two years when he was awarded a contract (in partnership with his father) to construct the National Pike's road-bed between Brownsville and Hillsborough, Pennsylvania, which was completed in 1820. Ewing never returned to the active practice of law, but instead engaged in a variety of business and agricultural pursuits.

On November 2, 1820, Ewing married Ellen Blaine, daughter of James Blaine, Esq., and aunt of James Gillespie Blaine, the Republican presidential candidate in 1884. The Ewings had ten children (not all of whom survived childhood) before Ellen Blaine Ewing died in 1840 from complications following childbirth; in 1845, John Hoge Ewing married Margaret Brown, with whom he had two children.

Ewing was a trustee of Washington College from 1834 to 1887 and of Washington Female Seminary

Washington Female Seminary

The Washington Female Seminary was a Presbyterian seminary for women operating from 1836 to 1948 in Washington, Pennsylvania.The movement to create an institution to teach women began in 1835 and the Seminary opened 1 year later in 1836. The two founders were abolitionist F...

 from 1846 to 1887. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two year terms from single member districts....

 in 1835-36, and served in the Pennsylvania State Senate

Pennsylvania State Senate

The Pennsylvania State Senate has been meeting since 1791. It is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such...

 from 1838 to 1842. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth

29th United States Congress

-House of Representatives:During this congress, two House seats were added for each of the new states of Texas and Iowa.-Leadership:-Senate:* President: George M. Dallas * President pro tempore: Willie P. Mangum...

 Congress, and was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention

1860 Republican National Convention

The 1860 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States, held in Chicago, Illinois at the Wigwam, nominated former U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President and U.S. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President...

.

He was a staunch supporter of the Union cause during the Civil War, and in 1862, at the age of 66, served as Captain of Company F of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment of Militia, which was briefly called up and deployed to Chambersburg, PA, during Lee's Maryland invasion that September.

Ewing was an Elder and Trustee in the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, and was the long-time president of the Washington County Agricultural Society. He owned substantial tracts of land in Washington County, the Virginia (later West Virginia) panhandle, and Wright County, Iowa (and possibly other places). He also and operated a small coal mine a few miles north of Washington Borough in an area known as the Meadowlands.

In addition to his work on the National Road, Ewing was also a superintendent of construction over a portion of the Washington-Pittsburgh Turnpike in the mid-1830s. Additionally, Ewing was an active proponent of railroads as far back as 1831, and in the 1850s and 1860s he was instrumental in garnering local support for both the Hempfield Railroad and the Chartiers Valley Railroad, which linked Washington to Wheeling and Pittsburgh, respectively. In addition to serving on the board of directors of the Chartiers Valley Railroad and as the first president of the Washington-Waynesburg Railroad, Ewing was also a longtime director of the Franklin Bank of Washington.

By all accounts, few men were more respected, honored, and revered by the people of Washington County, Pennsylvania.

John Hoge Ewing died in Washington on June 9, 1887, at the age of 90. He was interred in Washington Cemetery, which he helped to establish and incorporate more than 30 years earlier.

Sources

• The Political Graveyard

Washington "Examiner" and "Reporter" newspapers, 1809–1888
Crumrine, Boyd, "History of Washington County, Pennsylvania" 1882.
Earl Forrest, "History of Washington County, Pennsylvania," 1926.
Beers, J.H., "Commemorative Biographical Record: Washington County, Pennsylvania.," 1893. (p. 44)