Background
Dewey was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, April 7, 1767, where his father, Daniel Dewey, resided as a farmer.
Dewey was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, April 7, 1767, where his father, Daniel Dewey, resided as a farmer.
Dewey graduated from Yale College in 1787.
The son was fitted for college in his native town, at the Lebanon School of the well-known "Master Tisdale", Nathan Tisdale. After the burning of New London in the Battle of Groton Heights in 1781, he shouldered his musket and became for a time one of the garrison of Fort Griswold on the Thames River. From 1859 until his death, Dewey was the oldest living graduate of Yale.
He removed in 1791 to Cooperstown, New York, and taught a school in which James Fenimore Cooper is said to have learned the alphabet.
Two years later he became a farmer in that neighborhood and began to enter into public life. In the War of 1812, he joined the militia for a short time in the defense of Ogdensburg, New New York
In 1830, he removed to Watertown, New York, and subsequently to Sackets Harbor, New York, and then to Auburn, New New York in his ninety-seventh year. In late years he has repeatedly attended the Commencements of Yale College.
His mind was clear and his health good till the close of his days.
He was thrice elected a member of the New York Legislature, and was afterwards commissioned by President John Adams as a Collector of Internal Revenue, In 1809, he removed to the new town of De Kalb, New York, where he also exercised various political functions, being a supervisor of the town, a county magistrate and a commissioner of schools.