Francis Dwight was an American lawyer, educator. He had already wron the esteem, however, of educators throughout the eastern United States and had done notable work for the public schools of New York.
Background
Francis Dwight was born on March 14, 1808 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. He was the sixth in descent from John Dwight, who settled at Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1633, and the eighth of the twelve children of James Scutt and Mary (Sanford) Dwight. His father, a wealthy, enterprising, benevolently inclined merchant, owned a large wholesale and retail emporium in Springfield and six branch stores in as many near-by villages. He imported his wares direct from Europe, his own sloops and schooners conveying them from New York to Hartford, where river boats, also of his ownership, carried them on to Springfield.
Education
Francis entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1822 and Harvard College in 1824, graduated in 1827, and studied law for two years in the school at Northampton. When his brilliant young teacher, John Hooker Ashmun, was appointed to a professorship in the newly organized Harvard Law School, Dwight followed him to Cambridge for his final year (September 1829 - July 1830) of study.
Career
Dwight spent a year or more in travel in England, France, and Germany, partly for the sake of his health, which had been weakened by too close application to his books. In 1834 he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
Although definite information is lacking, Dwight does not appear to have succeeded well with the law, in spite of the good opinion that Justice Joseph Story had formed of him at Cambridge, and probably lost interest in his profession.
After a year’s practise in Massachusetts he moved out to Michigan Territory, but in 1838 he returned East and settled at Geneva, New York, the home of his father-in-law.
Meanwhile he had been interesting himself in the Lyceum movement and in popular education.
He was but entering on what should have been his real career when “inflammation of the bowfels”—not then recognized as appendicitis—cut him short.
Achievements
Dwight published the first number of the District School Journal of the State of New York, and soon after changed his headquarters to Albany. The paper gained official support and became the organ of the state common-school system.
Not long after he was appointed superintendent of the schools of the city and county of Albany, was made a member of the board of directors of the Albany Normal School, and was looked upon as a leader in education.
Connections
Dwight married Catharine Van Rensselaer Schermerhorn of Geneva, New York. She died on August 20, 1840, and on April 20, 1843, he married Catharine Waters Yates of Albany, New York, who outlived him.
