Clifford M. Hewitt died on October 11, 1942 in San Diego, California. He was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, on August 10, 1869. His career included being chief mechanical engineer for the United States Mint where he supervised the building and equipping of the new, modern mint buildings at Philadelphia and Denver. He was also “loaned” to the governments of the Philippines and China to supervise the building of their new mint buildings at Manila and Shanghai.
Cliffort Hewitt was married to Katherine “Kitty” Bueck (1870-1959), of Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bueck traveled with her husband to China where they both resided during the time of the construction of the Shanghai Mint.
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From the Lykens Standard, November 20, 1942:
CLIFFORD HEWITT DIEW AT SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA; WAS MINT EXPERT
Service for Clifford Hewitt, 73, of 4055 Couts Street, San Diego, California, who died Sunday, November 1, were conducted November 4 at 3:30 P. M. in the Johnson-Saum Chapel with John D. Spreckels Lodge 657, F. & A. M. officiating. Cremation will follow.
Mr. Hewitt, who has resided in San Francisco for 18 years, was mint expert for the United States government for 25 years. He had charge of the building and equipping of the Philadelphia mint in 1900 and installed the machinery in the Denver mint in 1914.
Mr. Hewitt was a life member of Robert A. Lamberton Lodge 487, F. & A. M., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a member of the Scottish Rite Bodies of Shanghai, China, and a member of Al Bahr Temple, of the Commonwealth Club of San Diego.
Mr. Hewitt leaves his wife, Mrs. Katherine Hewitt, formerly Miss Kitty Bueck, of Lykens, aunt of Mrs. Richard Budd, Main Street; two sons, Clifford B. Hewitt and Harold F. Hewitt, of San Diego, and a daughter, Mrs. William Dickel, of Philadelphia.
He also leaves a brother, Michael Hewitt, of Berwick, Pennsylvania, a sister, Mrs. Charles Hopkins, of Summerville, New Jersey.
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From the Reading Times, July 22, 1922:
CHINESE DRAGON TURNS TO AMERICAN EAGLE
Clifford Hewitt, considered the country’s greatest minting expert, who with three others have installed the newest and most modern minting system in the world, in the Shanghai Mint, China. Hewitt, who is of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has brought Chinese coinage to such a point that a Chinese dollar could easily be mistaken for an American coin – and the hole that the Orientals were so fond of boring in their prettiest coins, is also gone. Mr. Hewitt has been working in American mints for the past twenty-five years, and he has done for the Philippine Mint in Manila the same thing he attempted in China, with gratifying results.
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From the Philadelphia Public Ledger, January 26, 1921:
CHINA BUILDS GREAT MINT
Work of Erection of Plant Being Supervised by Philadelphian
Clifford Hewitt, of this city, is in Shanghai, China, to superintend the erection of a $2,000,000 mint, which will have a capacity of 200,000 silver dollars a day.
The new Chinese mint will rival in size and output the Philadelphia plant and when once in operation will mean the end of the conglomerate system of currency of all kinds and values which has been a handicap to the commercial progress of China.
Mr. Hewitt has been in the service of the United States for twenty-four years. He supervised the building of the mints in Denver and in this city, and his services have been “lent” by the United States to China.
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From the Lykens Standard, September 28, 1923:
MINT ENGINEERING SUBJECT OF ADDRESS BY CLIFFORD HEWITT
Mr. Clifford Hewitt, mint engineer for the Chinese Government, now located at Tientsin, China, made an address in July at a dinner tendered him by Mr. Chang Yiu Sun, Minister of Finance, and Mr. Chu Yu Cai, Managing Director of the Shanghai Mint, at the beautiful residence of Mr. Pau Fu, on Race Course Road, Tientsin, China. A paper named the “North China Star” and bearing date of July 24th [1923] gives a full account of the dinner and of the members of the various departments who were present. The address delivered dealt on the discussion of currency reform for China and was quite interesting.
Mr. Hewitt is the husband of our former townslady, Kate Bueck, who is with her husband at that place.
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News articles obtained through Newspapers.com. The portrait of Clifford Hewitt at the top of this post was colorized from a black and white photo on the web site of the American Numismatic Society.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.