In 1882, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad began building
a line between Waco and Taylor, which eventually required a
switch six miles from Waco. The site chosen as the stop along
the line was owned by the estate of John H. Brower, a shipping
magnate who had once been the Consul of the Republic of Texas in
New York. His estate was entrusted to his son-in-law, Thomas B.
Hewitt, a Yale-educated corporate attorney and KATY employee,
and John Blydenburgh. The MKT named the switch station Hewitt in
his honor, and the town was born. John Allison Warren, a local
farmer and business owner, bought 40 acres from the John H.
Brower estate in 1893 for the price of $4,911.83. He filed a
city plat, keeping Hewitt as the name that the railway had given
the switch. Warren gave away a lot of land in exchange to those
who bought lumber and supplies from his lumberyard. While J.A.
Warren encouraged a settlement of the land, there was already a
community in the area before the railroad. It is commonly
accepted that Major I