Davidson-Sumner County TN Archives Biographies.....DeWitt, John H. 1872 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 26, 2005, 11:56 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

   JOHN H. DEWITT. Nashville, Tennessee, has long had reputation as the home of

excellent legal talent, and among the younger generation of lawyers in that

city, none is better known than John H. DeWitt. Not only is he a successful

lawyer, but he finds time to take a keen interest in public affairs, and is

distinctly of the new South, believing firmly in education and in showing the

southern people how to develop the resources in this great, rich, and almost

undeveloped section of the Union.



   John H. DeWitt was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, on the 21st of

September, 1872. His father was the Rev. Marcus B. DeWitt and his mother was

Mary (Hibbett) DeWitt. He has a fine and sturdy ancestry behind him, being of

Dutch and Scotch-Irish descent- His paternal grandfather was also a professional

man, being Dr. W. J. DeWitt, of Paris, Tennessee, and his paternal grandmother

was Mary (Bearden) DeWitt. His mother was the daughter of John J. Hibbett and

Nancy (Parker) Hibbett, of Sumner county.



   John H. DeWitt has the advantage of so many southern men of his generation in

having a fine education. He was reared in Nashville and had the advantages of

the public school system of the city. He later attended the Montgomery Bell

Academy in Nashville, and then entered Vanderbilt University, which is located

in his home city. He received his A. B. degree from Vanderbilt in 1894, and then

went to Washington, D. C., where he matriculated in the law department of

Columbian University. In 1897 he was graduated from the latter institution with

the degree of LL. B. During these years between 1894 and 1897, while he was

studying law, he was also teaching school, but as soon as he was admitted to the

bar in 1897, he began the practice of his profession in Nashville. Since that

time he has practiced very successfully in this city.



   From the very beginning of his career he has taken an ardent interest in

public questions, and just two years after he returned from Washington he was

elected a member of the city council, serving in that body until 1901. In 1906

he was appointed a member of the Nashville city board of education and for three

years was an active member of this board. He is a member of the board of

trustees of the state reformatory and has served as secretary of this board.



   In religious matters Mr. DeWitt is a member of the Presbyterian church and is

an active worker in the church, being an elder in the Broadway Presbyterian

church. He is a member of the Masonic order, being a Royal Arch Mason, and he is

also a member of the Knights of Pythias. One honor has been his that only a

college bred man can appreciate at its true value, and that is the presidency of

Phi Delta Theta, one of the oldest and strongest of the national college

fraternities. He is also the president of the Tennessee Historical Society.



   On the 14th of November, 1899, Mr. DeWitt married Miss Rebecca Ward. They

have two sons, Ward DeWitt and John H. DeWitt, Jr.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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