Getting to Know Rev. Edward R. Jewitt

Rev. Edward Rogers Jewitt (sometimes spelled Jewett) was born in Connecticut in 1811. He married Elizabeth Camp in 1834. In 1835 the young couple settled in Elyria, Ohio. By 1840 E.R. Jewitt was admitted to the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Jewitt ministered in the Methodist Episcopal Church for over twenty years. Rev. Jewitt addressed the crowd that gathered on July 4^th in Milan, Ohio for a Celebration and “PicNic.” He was the pastor of the Sandusky Methodist Episcopal Church from 1845 to 1847. In the 1850s, he was the minister of the Bethel Church, which was an outreach of the Methodist Episcopal Church to improve the moral and religious condition of seamen in waters west of New York State.

Rev. Jewitt preached a sermon on July 4, 1852 at Put in Bay, when five companies of the Volunteer Militia of Ohio met at Put in Bay to celebrate Independence Day, as well as to discuss the erection of a monument to commemorate Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.

In 1860 and 1861, Rev. Jewitt was the Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Society of Sandusky. On January 13, 1860, under his leadership, the following anti-slavery resolution was passed at the Quarterly Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Sandusky:

 According to the obituary of Mrs. Elizabeth Jewitt, in 1863 Rev. Jewitt was injured and had to retire from active ministry. However, Rev. Jewitt remained involved in the community and in Methodist religious circles in Erie County, Ohio.

This advertisement from the Sandusky Register of May 11, 1864, states that Rev. Jewitt had opened a bookstore on Columbus Avenue. He sold Bibles and hymn books, as well as stationery, toys, and writing supplies.

When the Convention of the Erie County Sunday School Union met on May 11, 1872, the president of the organization was absent, so Rev. E.R. Jewitt stepped in to run the convention. Several in attendance felt that there was a significant correlation between children who attended Sunday School and secular school. There was a feeling that learning at Sunday School could reinforce the skills of school children who also attended public school. 

Rev. Jewitt attended the 42^nd Annual Session of the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in Ashland in September of 1888, and reported on the events which took place.

By 1880, Rev. and Mrs. Jewitt retired to a farm in Margaretta Township. Rev. Jewitt died on August 22, 1892, and he was buried at Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Jewitt survived until 1904.

This obituary appeared in the Sandusky Register of August 23, 1892: