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Note: John Hamilton Hewitt was born in St. Croix (then the Danish West Indies) on January 29, 1890. He arrived in New York on September 11, 1911 at age of 21 on the ship S.S. Parima, served in the army (serial number AR2882518) from April 30, 1918 until May 6, 1919 and became a naturalized citizen by special Supreme Court session held at Camp Upton on May 23, 1918 at age 28. He had brown eyes and hair, stood 5ft. 10in. tall and weighed from 155 to 165lbs.. His first army unit was Company A, 351st Machine Gun Battalion (369th Infantry, 93rd Division) at Camp Upton, Suffolk County, New York. He was with the 369th in France and Germany. Surgery had been performed for a hydrocele at St. Luke's Hospital in 1917. In 1919 while overseas (January 1 - March 6) he complained of right groin pain that was aggravated by "long marches and heavy packs." The problem became much worse when he "fell while carrying a machine gun in action in France." Upon returning stateside, he was admitted to the base hospital at Camp Upton on March 21, 1919 where surgery was done to repair his right hydrocele on March 24.
He married Agatha Benjamin Glasgow (widow of his friend, Alexander Glasgow) on June 1, 1924 in Orange, New Jersey at the Church of the Epiphany. Fr. George Marshall Plaskett, a friend of Agatha's performed the ceremony.
John Hewitt's death certificate names his parents Robert Hewitt of Ireland and Lena Abrams of the West Indies.( An application for survivor's benefits signed by his wife listed his mother as Lena Abrams Simmonds). Occupation: messenger - The New York World newspaper - last worked at this occupation on July 4, 1939 after employment lasting 20 years. Other records list employment as a porter at the Schulte Ciger Store, 384 Broadway at $10/wk., and building employee at the Press Publishing Company, 63 Park Row at $90/mo (from 1930). The St. Luke's Hospital Certificate of Proof of Death lists Carcinoma of stomach with metastases to liver as the cause of death. After hospitalization on July 24, the diagnosis was confirmed by laporoscopy and biopsy done on August 18, 1939. He died at St. Luke's on August 28, 1939. The hospital certificate lists occupation as - porter. No autopsy was performed. Burial was on August 31, 1939 at our family plot , Mt. Olivet Cemetary, Maspeth, Long Island (Burial Permit #251). He was 49 years old. The cause of death is stated as Natural Causes.
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