Milo Jewett was the son of a successful medical doctor. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1828, practicing law, which he promptly left in order to study at Andover Seminary. From there he went to Marietta College, in Ohio, where he became a professor. He also became the pastor of a Presbyterian church.
In a letter which was written on this day in 1838 he described a crisis which came into his life. One of the elders of his church became a Baptist. That man’s immersion and the sermon Pastor Hiram Gear preached on the occasion, disturbed several of Jewett’s church members. His church asked him to preach a rebuttal, but he declined, saying that the enthusiasm would soon die down. It didn’t. Being forced to defend his Protestant position, he began to study the New Testament in its original language. He wrote in his letter, “I would lay down the subject for weeks, then resume it, till, some three or four months ago, I was obliged, in the fear of God, to conclude that none but believers in Jesus have a right to the ordinance of Jesus.” In 1840 he published his studies under the title “Jewett on Baptism.”
In January 1839 Jewett was immersed and united with the Baptist church in Marietta, resigning from his position at the college. He went on to establish the Judson Female Institute in Marion, Alabama, where he also edited a Baptist magazine. Later he became the first president of Vassar College. After he lost his eyesight, he moved to Milwaukee where he served as a college administrator and an active Baptist church member. He passed away in 1882 at the age of seventy-four.
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History,” Thompson and Cummins