John Hill Hewitt
John Hill Hewitt (born July 11, 1801 in New York City , † October 7, 1890 in Boston ) was an American composer, poet and newspaper publisher.
Life
The eldest son of the composer James Hewitt grew up in Boston and attended the West Point Academy of the US Army from 1818 to 1822 , where he studied music with the conductor of the band of the academy. He then went on tour with his father's theater company that broke up due to financial problems in Augusta, Georgia . Hewitt settled there as a music teacher.
In 1825 he moved to Greenville, where he founded The Republican newspaper . After his father's death, he returned to Boston before becoming a partner in the Baltimore Clipper in Baltimore . He also edited other magazines, including The Visitor . He himself submitted a poem under a pseudonym to a poetry competition for this magazine and awarded himself first prize - in front of a competition entry by Edgar Allan Poe .
From 1840 to 1849 Hewitt was the editor of The Capitol newspaper in Washington, then he took a position as a music teacher at the Chesapeake Female College in Hampton. When the Civil War broke out , he became a recruit trainer for the Confederate troops in Richmond, and a little later he published the Evening Mirror in Savannah . After the civil war he worked as a music teacher in various cities in the southern United States.
Hewitt composed more than three hundred ballads, as well as cantatas, oratorios and ballad operas . The song All Quiet Along the Potomac , which he composed during the Civil War based on a text by Lamar Fontaine , was sung by both the troops of the southern and northern states.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hewitt, John Hill |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American composer, lyric poet and newspaper publisher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1801 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 7, 1890 |
| Place of death | Boston |