Dr. Wilbert Lew & Hattie Burghardt Lew - Photograph
c. 1900, Northampton Road, Amherst
About Wilbert Lew & Hattie Burghardt Lew
In the early 1900’s, Dr. Wilbert Lew and his wife Hattie (Burghardt) Lew lived in this house. 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, where he eventually opened a veterinary practice .
Azubah (Newport) Burghardt, also known as “Rachel A. Newport, who was born about 1819 in Hatfield, gave land for construction of the Lew house at 240 Northampton Road, which was built in 1894. Azubah was the wife of Francis Burghardt - uncle of WEB Dubois. Francis Ira Burghardt was born about 1813 in Great Barrington, the son of Othello and Sally Burghardt. Francis was a farm laborer in Amherst in 1846 and was listed in 1850 and 1855 with $200 worth of land.
Wilbert Lew is featured in a post on the Consecrated Eminence, "Black Men of Amherst, 1877-1883." There you'll find his class portrait as well as a biographical sketch and an up-to-date portrait for the class of 1883’s 25th Reunion book