Henry Hewitt

We first met Mr. Hewitt yesterday, the founder of the Bank of Menasha.  Today, we learn a bit more about the man.  Henry Hewitt, who was born in England in 1814, came to America in 1842 and settled first in Racine County.  He then moved to Menasha in 1856, as a contractor, overseeing the excavation of the enlarged canal in Menasha in 1856-57, built the crib work in the front of the dam, and built the original wooden bridge at Tayco Street.  He initially went into banking in Neenah in 1865.   He died in Menasha March  22, 1897. 

From P.V. Lawson's History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People, (1908), we have this testimony to the man's greatness:

In 1870 he founded the present Bank of Menasha under the name of the National Bank of Menasha, and from that time until his death he was attached to it as few men are attached to any business.  Every day, rain or shine, his familiar face, ruddy and gathering with the rare good health that comes from careful living, could be seen near the fireplace, and not until approaching death forced him to the confinement of his home did he retreat from the post which he long and faithfully occupied.  He was a tower of strength in the world of finance, and it will be many years before the name of Henry Hewitt, Sr., is forgotten among those who live in these parts.