Harry Dimick Jewell  Page 619-620 - Harry Dimick Jewell, former judge of the probate court of this county, has been a member of the Grand Rapids bar more than thirty years, and here his law business is now one of broad scope and representative order. Though Judge Jewell was born at Wheaton, Dupage county, Illinois, Mach 5, 1869, he was reared in Kent county, Michigan, where his paternal grandfather, Ebenezer Jewell, settled in 1856 and became one of the pioneer exponents of farm industry in Solon township, he having there remained on the old homestead until his death. The Jewell family was represented by members who came from England on the historic ship Mayflower and made colonial settlement in Massachusetts, representatives of the family having later been numbered among the early settlers in Connecticut. Judge Jewell is a son of Oliver P. and Hannah (Dimick) Jewell, who were natives of the state of New York and who passed the closing years of their lives in Grand Rapids, where the former died in 1898 and the latter in 1898. Oliver P. Jewell was reared and educated in the old Empire state, where in his youth he learned the printer’s trade and became actively identified with the newspaper business. He was one of the organizers of the first typographical union in the state of New York, the same having been known as the "Big Six," and in this connection he was a member of the committee that prevailed upon Horace Greeley to accept the presidency of the organization. Mr. Jewell accompanied his father to Michigan in 1856, but prior to this he had been editor and publisher of the Penn Yan Gazette, at Penn Yan, New York. In Michigan he continued his association with the newspaper business, in which he was for some time associated with the Grand Rapids Eagle, but much of his activity in this state was in connection with farm enterprise in Kent county. At the time of the birth of his son, Harry D., of this review, he was engaged in newspaper work in Chicago, but resided at Wheaton, Illinois, where the family resided during the temporary absence from Michigan. Judge Jewell acquired his early education principally by attending the public schools of Cedar Springs, Kent county, and while assisting three years thereafter in the work of the home farm, he also found opportunity to read law, under the preceptorship of D. C. Lyle, of Cedar Springs. In 1889 he entered the University of Michigan, in which he carried forward his studies in both the academic, or literary, and the law departments, his previous study of law having so fortified him that he was able to graduate in the law department in 1891, when he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the law department he completed a post-graduate course that gained to him in the following year the degree of Master of Laws, and he was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1890, while still a student in the university, he having partially defrayed his university expenses by preliminary service in the work of his chosen profession. He served as instructor in the law department of the university and was for two years assistant librarian of the university law library. His close application and exceptional practical experience in these connections enabled him to gain specially broad and accurate knowledge of the science of jurisprudence prior to his engaging in active practice. In 1892 Judge Jewell formed a partnership with Judge Reuben Hatch and engaged in the general practice of law in Grand Rapids. In the following year he was appointed registrar of the probate court of Kent county, and after four years of service in this capacity he was elected judge of the probate court, he having thereafter been three times re-elected and having resigned somewhat prior to the expiration of his fourth term, after an able administration of fifteen years. Judge Jewell was but twenty-seven years of age when elected to this important office, and the high estimate placed upon his administration by the bar and the voters of the county was shown in his being long retained in office. Judge Jewell later became one of the most influential in the establishing, in 1907, and the developing of the present admirable juvenile court of Kent county, with which he was actively associated five years and in which he still retains the deepest interest. Since 1912 Judge Jewell has been engaged in the private and general practice of his profession, in which he gives special attention to and is a recognized local authority in probate work, as may well be understood. He has been actively loyal and helpful in connection with civic and general community interests, and was a member of the committee that framed the present city charter of Grand Rapids. He and Judge Wolcott were representatives of Kent county on the committee that did effective preliminary service in establishing the juvenile court system of Michigan; he was a member of the committee assigned to the work of unifying the probate court rules of practice in the state; and in 1902-03 he was president of the Michigan Association of probate judges. While a student in the University of Michigan, Judge Jewell became one of the founders, as well as editor, of the university daily paper, and he was one of the founders also of the Michigan Law Journal. He was prominently concerned in the organization of the Young Men’s Republican Club of Grand Rapids, of which he was the president in 1894-95, and he was four years president of the Lincoln Club, another strong Republican organization in Grand Rapids, his service in this executive office having been in the period of 1918-22. Through these and other mediums he has done much to advance the cause of the Republican partly. Judge Jewell has prevision of the great possibilities in the development of Michigan as one of the greatest summer resort states of the Union, and he has taken lively and helpful interest in the developments along this line and the conservation of the natural resources of the state. He has established a 640-acre game refuge on property owned by him west of Bitely, Michigan, which will permit the increase of all kinds of game in western Newaygo and Lake counties. Incidentally it is to be noted that he is an enthusiastic member of the Izaak Walton League of America. His basic Masonic affiliation is with Doric lodge, No. 342, A. F. & A. M., and in the Scottish Rite of the time-honored fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree, besides which he is a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the Elks and the Knights of Pythias, and he and his wife hold membership in the Park Congregational church. In 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Jewell to Miss Euphemia S. Smith, daughter of Rev. J. Malcom and Euphemia (Eadie) Smith, her father having been a clergyman of the Congregational church. Judge and Mrs. Jewell have three children: Roger A., Ruth (wife of Malcom H. Sherwood, of Chicago), and Robert H.

Transcriber: Nancy Myers
Created: 30 December 2002