Biography

01/02/1859 - 05/26/1926

Edward Francis Blewitt (D22) Lackawanna County 1907-1910

Early Life: 

Edward Francis Blewitt, born January 2, 1859, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana; son of Patrick and Catherine Scanlon Blewitt, Lafayette College, B.S., civil engineering, 1879; engaged, engineering, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania mining operations; married, Mary Ellen Stanton, 1879, (d.1887) children, Gertrude, Patrick, Arthur, and Geraldine, remarried, Mary Ann Blackwell, 1891; city engineer, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1883-1893; elected, school controller, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1883-1884; consulting engineer, chief engineer, Guadalajara City, State of Jalisco, Mexico, sewer and water system, 1897-1902; founder, Edward F. Gold Mining Company, 1903; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1907-1910; died, May 26, 1926, Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania; interment, Saint Catherine's Cemetery, Moscow, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

City engineer, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1883-1893; Founder, Edward F. Gold Mining Company, silver and gold mining operation, Montana, December 1903.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Co-founder, Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1908; member, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 22nd district, Lackawanna County, 1907-1910; committee assignments, Appropriations, Corporations, Military Affairs, Municipal Affairs, Public Roads and Highways and Public Health and Sanitation.  

Legacy:

Lafayette College, class president, 1879.

From his first marriage with Mary Ellen Stanton (through their daughter Geraldine), Blewitt is the matrilineal great-grandfather of Joseph Biden, the 46th president of the United States.

The Honorable Edward Francis Blewitt is not the first Roman Catholic Pennsylvania State Senator, that distinction belongs to the Honorable William McSherry (McSherrystown, Adams County), 1813-1817, whose son, James, also served in the Pennsylvania State Senate during the Civil War.

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members B". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Miller, H.P., (Compiler). Baker, W.H., (Assistant Compiler). (1910). The Pennsylvania Manual, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 993, 1000-1003, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 971.

Edward Francis Blewitt (1859-1926) - Find a Grave Memorial