13 Facts About Orville Dewey

Orville Dewey was an American Unitarian minister.

Orville Dewey's ancestors were among the first settlers of Sheffield, where he spent his early life, alternately working upon his father's farm and attending the village school.

Orville Dewey was naturally thoughtful, and was encouraged in his love of reading by his father.

Orville Dewey's parents had him so thoroughly prepared for College that he entered the sophomore class in Williams College, where he was graduated in 1814.

Orville Dewey then returned to Sheffield, where he engaged in teaching, and afterward went to New York, becoming a clerk in a dry goods house.

Orville Dewey was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1819, and for eight months was agent for the American Education Society, having declined an immediate and permanent pastorate on account of his unsettled views regarding theology.

Orville Dewey soon became a Unitarian, and was appointed to be the assistant of Dr William Ellery Channing, in Boston, with whom he formed a lasting friendship, and whose Church he supplied during its pastor's travels in Europe.

Orville Dewey was called to the second Unitarian Church of New York in 1835, which during his ministry built the Church of the Messiah.

Orville Dewey was compelled to resign his charge in 1848, and retired to his farm in Sheffield, where he prepared a course of lectures for the Lowell Institute of Boston, on the "Problem of Human Life and Destiny", which course was repeated twice in New York, and delivered in many other cities.

Dr Orville Dewey was called to a church in Albany, where he remained one year, and to Washington, DC, where he spent two years.

Orville Dewey returned to his farm in Sheffield, where he resided until his death.

Orville Dewey lectured frequently, and appeared in public for the last time in the old Congregational Church at the centennial celebration, June 18,1876.

Orville Dewey's daughter, Mary Elizabeth Dewey, born in Sheffield, was an author and editor; she translated George Sand's novel The Miller of Angibault and edited Life and Letters of Catharine M Sedgwick.