George C. Ewing

George Ewing was a Congregationalist, serving as a lay preacher even into his later years for the Second Congregational Church of Holyoke, which he had joined in 1864. In his final years he wrote a history of the city to be published by its YMCA, which he proclaimed to the secretary of that chapter as well as his son, George Ewing Jr., would be his "last work". George Ewing died between the hours of six and seven on the evening of July 16, 1888; he was 78 years old.

Ewing was born in Hudson, New York on a day in March or April 1810 to Noble and Miriam (née Wolcott) Ewing. Early in his life, Ewing travelled to many locations, opening wainwright shops in Walpole, New Hampshire, Westminster, Vermont, and Littleton, New Hampshire. By the age of 30, he and his family had relocated to New York City where he became an associate of the Fairbanks Scale Company, serving as both a maker of scales and subsequently as a sales representative.

Throughout his life Ewing had a varied political career of many positions both in Holyoke, and as a figure in Massachusetts politics. In his early political career he remained active in the Whig Party, serving as a delegate in at least one of the party's conventions in Boston. Having founded a Temperance Society in the city's earliest days, following the Whig Party's dissolution, Ewing became identified with the Prohibition Party.

In Holyoke, Ewing remained an ardent advocate of not only the city's development but also for reform of its labor, seeking to "bridge the growing gulf between the established and working classes", through such proposals as shorter hours for workers. One of the reforms he proposed was a law that would use state funds to compensate families whose children were attending school for the wages they would have made from working during that time; the motion lacked any political support. However, as superintendent of Holyoke's public schools from 1867 to 1868, he was able to successfully start an evening school program which proved a marked success; in 1868 there were 20 pupils in this program, by 1879 the number had grown to 300.

Among his many various positions in Holyoke civic life, Ewing served as an assessor in 1851, and a justice of the peace in 1855. In 1852 he served as a state representative to the Massachusetts General Court, the only official state office he held. Prior to its incorporation as a city, Ewing served as one of its selectmen from 1869 to 1870. When the Holyoke National Bank was founded in 1872, Ewing would serve as a member of its first board of directors.

Believing in prohibition for much of his life, Ewing was initially selected to run on the gubernatorial ticket of the Prohibition Party in 1878, but objected "the party ought to head the ticket with a bigger man than [himself], unless they prefer some one who isn't very well known". Ultimately the party selected Alonzo Ames Miner, Tufts University's second president to head the ticket instead. Ewing would run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the gubernatorial race of 1878, receiving only 2,117 votes or 0.83% of the final count.