Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D.: Edited by His DaughterDewey, Orville
Religion
Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D.: Edited by His Daughter
Dewey, Orville
Dewey, Orville, 1794-1882
under the pressure of nervous disease, from active service, while never
losing its concern for the public good, its quickness of personal
sympathy, nor its interest in the solution of the mightiest problems
of humanity, cannot be an altogether unprofitable use of time to the
reader, while to the writer it is a work of consecration. He who was at
once like a son and brother to my father, he who should have crowned
a forty-years' friendship by the fulfilment of this pious task, and
who would have done it with a stronger and a steadier hand than mine,
BELLOWS, was called first from that "fair companionship," while still
in the unbroken exercise of the varied and remarkable powers which
made his life one of such [10] large use, blessing, and pleasure to
the world. None could make his place good to his elder friend, whose
approaching death was visibly hastened by grief for the loss of the
constant sympathy and devotion which had faithfully cheered his
declining years. Many and beautiful tributes were laid upon my father's
tomb by those whom he left here. Why should we not hope that that of
Bellows was in the form of greeting?
ST. DAVID'S, July, 1883.
{FN 1: My father always preferred this simple title to the more
formal "Dr." and in his own family and among his most intimate
friends he was Mr. Dewey to the last. He was, of course,
gratified by the complimentary intention of Harvard University
in bestowing the degree of D.D. upon him in 1839, but he never
felt that his acquisitions in learning entitled him to it.}
[11] AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I WAS born in Sheffield, Mass., on the 28th of March, 1794. My
grandparents, Stephen Dewey and Aaron Root, were among the early
settlers of the town, and the houses they built the one of brick, and
the other of wood--still stand. They came from Westfield, about forty
miles distant from Sheffield, on horseback, through the woods; there
were no roads then. We have always had a tradition in our family that
the male branch is of Welsh origin. When I visited Wales in 1832, I
remember being struck with the resemblance I saw in the girls and young
women about me to my sisters, and I mentioned it when writing home. On
going up to London, I became acquainted with a gentleman, who, writing
a note one day to a friend of mine and speaking of me, said: "I spell
the name after the Welsh fashion, Devi; I don't know how he spells it."
On inquiring of this gentleman, and he referred me also to biographical
dictionaries,--I found that our name had an origin of unsuspected
dignity, not to say sanctity, being no other than that of Saint David,
the patron saint [12] of Wales, which is shortened and changed in the
speech of the common people into Dewi.'{2}
{FN 2: This was the reason why Mr. Dewey gave to the country
home which he inherited from his father the name of "St.
David's," by which it is known to his family and friends.--M.
E. D.}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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