Harriet and Dr. Wilbert Lew's House, #240 Northampton Road

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Hattie Lew (left) and Azubah Burghart Newport on porch.	tiff / 6.35 MB	Download
Dr. Wilbert Lew	tiff / 4.77 MB	Download

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AHS, “Harriet and Dr. Wilbert Lew's House, #240 Northampton Road,” Amherst Historic, accessed October 13, 2024, https://amhersthistoric.org/items/show/34.

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In the early 1900's, Dr. Wilbert Lew and his wife Hattie (Burghardt) Lew lived in this house.
Wilbert attended Amherst College. According to the blog of Amherst College, Frost Library, Special Collections (consecratedeminence.wordpress.com, Lew was born in Gardner, Massachusetts in 1861. He attended high school and then Amherst College and headed west and studied veterinary science in Michigan. He returned to the Connecticut River Valley and worked to open a practice by earning money at the J.N. Leonard silk thread factory in Florence, Massachusetts. He eventually opened a veterinary practice in Florence, MA.

Azubah (Newport) Burghardt gave the land for construction of the Lew House at 240 Northampton Road, which was built in 1894. Mrs. Bughardt had lived in the Westside District since the 1860s and was 75 years old when her daughter, Mrs. Harriet (Hattie) Lew, and her husband, the veterinarian Dr. Wilbert Lew, built the house.

Azubah is the wife of Frances Burghart – uncle of WEB Dubois. Originally from Great Barrington. Frances’ sister Mary Silvinia Burghardt was WEB Dubois’ mother.

Francis Ira Burghardt was born about 1813 in Great Barrington, the son of Othello and Sally Burghardt. Francis, married third, on 4 February 1847 at Amherst.

Azubah Newport who was born about 1819 at Hatfield. In 1869, she was known also as “Rachel A. Newport” and was living at Amherst in 1870. Francis was a farm laborer at Amherst in 1846 and is listed as a farmer there in 1850 and 1855 with $200 worth of land.

He purchased the two-acre “Smith Lot '' with a building upon it prior to 1857 and retired the mortgage in 1866. He began to pay poll and property taxes in 1857 and was listed as a laborer at Amherst in 1860 and 1865 with land valued at $350. Francis was still living at Amherst on Northampton Road in 1869 and 1870 at which time his land was valued at $1,000.”

Published on Mar 10, 2022. Last updated on Oct 14, 2022.

Harriet and Dr. Wilbert Lew's House, #240 Northampton Road

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