Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/178

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158
DE WALDEN
DEWEY

an extraordinary effect upon the pultlie mind, and for a while set at rest the subject of emancipation in Virginia ; " A Digest of the Laws, Customs, Manners, and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations" (New York, 1858). This is a treatise on the history of the world from its earliest period to the first French revolution. He also published " Lectures," on " Usury," " History," " The Char- acteristic Difference of Man and Woman," etc., and contributed to the " Southern Literary Messenger."


DE WALDEN, Thomas Blaides, actor, b. in London, England, in 1811 ; d. in New York city, 26 Sept., 1873. He appeared at the Haymarket theatre, London, in 1841, and made his first appear- ance on the American stage at the Park theatre, New York, in 1844, as Belmour in " Is he Jealous ? " After achieving moderate success upon the stage, he began to adapt and to write plays, of which he left more than one hundred. In 1857 he abandoned his profession and engaged in mercantile pursuits, but without success. He was a chaplain in the volunteer army of the United States during the civil war. He was the author of " The Upper Ten and the Lower Twenty," played at Burton's thea- tre. New York ; " The Seven Sisters " ; " Sam,' written for F. S. Chanfrau ; " Kit," altered for Mr. Ghanfrau ; " The Jesuit," played at the Bowery theatre in 1854 ; " The Bell-Ringer of Boston " ; "The Hypochondriac," and several adaptations from the French for Matilda Heron.


BEWART, Edward Hartley, Canadian clergy- man, b. in county Cavan, Ireland, in 1828. When six years old he came with his parents to Canada, the family settling in the county of Peterborough, Ontario. He was almost wholly self-educated, with the exception of two sessions passed in the Toronto normal school. In 1851 he began preaching as a probationer of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and after completing four years in this service was ordained a minister. In 1856 he was appointed superintendent of St. Andrew's circuit, on the Ot- tawa river. Subsequently he preached in the Old- town circuit, and in 1860 was stationed in Mon- treal west. Soon afterward he resigned his charge in consequence of illness, and after his recovery labored in St. John's circuit, CoUingwood, Toronto, and Ingersoll. In 1869 he was elected editor of the " Christian Guardian," the principal organ of Methodism in Canada. At the general conference of the United Methodists in 1883 he was elected by acclamation to the editorial chair. In connec- tion with the movement for the union of the vari- ous branches of the Methodist church, he was one of the chief advocates of lay delegation and union principles ; and at the London conference in 1873, when a plan of union had been agreed upon by the Wesleyan, Eastern British-American, and New Connection conferences, he and Dr. Nelles were ap- pointed delegates to the British conference to rep- resent the united church and arrange the terms of settlement with the parent body. He was also present as a delegate from Canada at the Method- ist oecumenical conference that met in London, England, in 1881. The degree of D. D. was con- ferred upon him by Victoria college, Cobourg. His writings include a prize essay against the use of to- bacco (1858), and poems on " John Milton," " Ni- agara Palls," and " Voices of the Past."


DEWDNEY, Edgar, statesman, b. in Devon- shire, England, in 1835. He went to British Co- lumbia in 1859, and was employed on the Canadian Pacific railway survey as an engineer. He repre- sented Kootenay in the local parliament in 1868-'9, and was returned for the Dominion parliament in 1872, again in 1874, and by acclamation at the gen- eral election in 1878. In 1879 he resigned on being appointed Indian commissioner, which office he held till appointed lieutenant-governor of the northwest territories in December, 1881. In July, 1888, he was appointed minister of the interior and superintendent-general of Indian affairs for Canada.


DEWEES, William Potts, physician, b. in Pottsgrove, Pa., 5 May, 1768; d. in Philadelphia. 18 May, 1841. He attended lectures in the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, and began to practise at Ab- ington, Pa., in 1789, without having taken a degree, which, however, was soon conferred upon him by the university. Yellow fever having thinned the ranks of the" physicians in Philadelphia in 1793, Dr. Dewees removed there, selecting obstetrics as his specialty, and won a high reputation in that department. In 1812 he relinquished his practice on account of delicate health and resided at Phil- ipsburg. Pa., where he devoted himself to agricult- ure until 1817. In that year he returned to Phila- delphia and resumed practice. In 1826 he was elected adjunct professor, and in 1834 professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the University of Pennsylvania. In the latter year, his health failing, he was obliged to resign his pro- fessorship. After spending a winter in Cuba and a summer in the north, he settled in Mobile, and returned to Philadelphia a year before his death. He published a volume of " Medical Essays " (Phila- delphia, 1823) ; " Treatise on the Physical and Med- ical Treatment of Children " (1825 ; 10th ed., 1854) ; •'System of Midwifery" (1825; 12th ed., 1854); " Treatise on the Diseases of Females " (1826 ; 10th ed., 1854) ; and " Practice of Medicine " (1830).


DEWEY, Charles Augustus, jurist, b. in Williamstown, Mass., 13 March, 1793 ; d. in North- ampton, Mass., 22 Aug., 1866. He was a son of Daniel Dewey, who represented Berkshire county in congress in 1813. He was graduated at Williams in 1811, studied law with Theodore Sedgwick, of Stockbridge, and began the practice of the profes- sion in Williamstown in 1814, where he remained until in 1826 he removed to Northampton. He served as U. S. district attorney from 1830 till 1837, when he was appointed the fifth judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts. In 1840 he re- ceived from Harvard the degree of LL. D. Judge Dewey continued on the bench until his death, a period of twenty-nine years. He was a laborious member of the court, always takmg upon himself his full share of the work, and never seeking to avoid any of the responsibilities of his office. Al- though not a brilliant lawyer, he was distinguished by the sound sense exercised in the consideration of all questions coming before him. He was thoroughly familiar with the entire body of statute law, as well as with that regulating mercantile transactions and charitable trusts, which latter re- ceived a large share of his attention at the begin- ning of ids judicial career.


DEWEY, Chester, educator, b. in Sheffield, Mass., 25 Oct., 1781; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 15 Dec, 1867. He was graduated at Williams in 1806,. studied for the ministry, was licensed to preach in 1808, and officiated at Tyringham, Mass. In the same year he became tutor at Williams, and in 1810 was appointed to the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy. He held this place for seventeen years. during which he did much for the advancement of the college. For many years he was professor and lecturer on chemistry and botany in the medical colleges of Pittsfield, Mass., and Woodstock, Vt. In 1836 he became principal of the collegiate institute in Rochester, N. Y., where he remained till 1850, when he was appointed.