George C. Ewing
| George Clinton Ewing | |
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| Member, Board of Directors of Holyoke National Bank | |
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In office 1872 |
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| Vice President of the Board of the Holyoke Public Library | |
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In office 1870-1871 |
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| Selectman of Holyoke | |
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In office 1869-1870 |
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| Superintendent of Holyoke Public Schools | |
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In office 1867-1869 |
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| Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
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In office 1852 |
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| Assessor of Holyoke | |
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In office 1851 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | March/April, 1810 Hudson, New York |
| Died | July 16, 1888 (aged 78) Holyoke, Massachusetts |
| Political party |
Whig Party Prohibition Party |
| Spouse(s) | Lydia Ann Stillwell (m. 1834-1854; her death) |
| Children | 5 |
| Signature |  |
George Clinton Ewing (March/April 1810 – July 16, 1888) was a salesman, wainwright, land agent, superintendent, assessor, selectman, state representative, and most notably one of the chief founders of Holyoke, Massachusetts; he is credited as having first brought the idea of building a dam and industrial city at Hadley Falls to investors in Boston, New York, Hartford, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1846.
Ewing was born in Hudson, New York on a day in March or April of 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.
As a salesman for Fairbanks, Ewing travelled across the United States, Europe, and even Russia to expand the company's market. During his travels he had a chance to see the new dam and canals constructed at Lowell, and by 1846 had noticed that a 60 foot drop in the Connecticut River, at what would be Hadley Falls, would serve as an ideal location for a similar project. Having served many mills across the country as customers, Ewing was familiar not only with their operations but with their financiers as well. Although the company left the project soon after land was amassed, the Fairbanks Scale Company was largely responsible for the initial charter and water rights of the Hadley Falls Company. Ewing, having personally known Erastus Fairbanks, was able to convince him and a number of backers from Boston, Hartford, and New York to charter the company tasked with building a new planned industrial city. In March of 1847 Ewing was appointed land agent and transferred 37 acres to the company, with very little resistance from the farmers whose land he had purchased. By the time Holyoke was chartered as a municipality this number had reached 1,300 acres. The one farmer who pushed back against the effort was one Sam Ely, who "declar[ed] that he would not sell to the 'cotton lords' of the Hadley [Falls] Company 'if they covered the entire field with gold dollars.' Finding no support from his contemporaries, Ely delayed sale of his land, but ultimately sold as well.
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