In person the admiral is of medium height, very slightly stooped, inclining to be stout, but still active and vigorous. He is a man of the world as well as a planner of naval battles, and while in Washington he was extremely popular as a club man. His manner is quiet and reserved, indicating poise and self-control, however, rather than aloofness or a lack of sympathy with those about him. Sketches of his life are numerous in the current magazines after May, 1898. The books treating of the operations in the Philippines all contain notices of the admiral. See “With Dewey at Manila,” by Thomas J. Vivian (New York, 1898); “Life of George Dewey, Rear-Admiral, U. S. N., and Dewey Family History,” by Adelbert M. Dewey and Louis Marinus Dewey (Westfield, Mass., 1898); and “Admiral George Dewey: a Sketch of the Man.” by John Barrett, which was published at New York in September, 1899.
As the names of Hull and the “Constitution” and Farragut and the “Hartford” are indissolubly linked together, so are those of Dewey and the “Olympia” — the latter seen in the accompanying vignette. Her keel was laid in June, 1891, and she was launched in November, 1892, completed April, 1893, and first commissioned February, 1895. She was constructed at San Francisco by the Union iron-works, and is schooner-rigged. She is a second-class armored cruiser, carrying armor varying from 3½ to 4½ inches in thickness. Her main battery consists of 10 5-inch rapid-fire guns and 4 8-inch breech-loading rifles mounted in turrets, and her secondary battery comprises 14 rapid-fire 6-pounders, 7 rapid-fire 1-pounders, 2 Colt's and 1 field gun. She also carries 6 Whitehead torpedoes. Her displacement is 5,870 tons, and she requires 34 officers and 416 men. Her hull and machinery cost $1,796,000. She was first sent on several short cruises, and then was attached to the Asiatic station. In May, 1898, her name and Dewey's became known the world over through the battle of Manila bay. In that famous sea-fight she was commanded by Capt. Charles Vernon Gridley, who later, on his way home on sick leave, died at Yokohama. The “Olympia,” with the admiral aboard, arrived in New York harbor on the morning of 26 Sept., 1899, and a few days later a valuable service of silver was presented to the celebrated war-ship by the citizens of Olympia, Wash., who also gave a large and beautiful bronze shield.
DEWEY. Jedediah, clergyman, b. 11 April,
1714,at Westfield, Mass. : d. 21 Dec. 1778. at Bennington, Vt. He learned the trade of a carpenter
after his common-school education was completed.
In 1737, at the age of twenty-three, he joined the
church at Westfield, and at the time of "the great
awakening" in the New England churches in the
middle of the eighteenth century, when the Westfield church adopted "the half-way covenant,"
Dewey left the congregation, joined the Sepralists
or New Lights, and became a preacher in that division of the church. He had left the Westfield
church in 1748; in 1749 he was called to account
for this, and in 1750 the church voted that they
could no longer regard him as one of their number, and therefore withdrew their fellowship. Soon
after Bennington, Vt., was settled the church was
organized there, and on 24 May, 1763, a call was
extended to Rev. Jedediah Dewey, pastor of the
New Light church at Westfield. The church proposed further that the church at Westfield unite
with them and form one church under the then
Westfield pastor. This proposal was agreed to by
an ecclesiastical council at Westfield on 14 Aug.,
1763, and was ratified by the church at Bennington on 12 Sept. Dewey continued as pastor here
until his death. He took an active part in affairs
secular as well as ecclesiastical, being indicted at
Albany in January, 1770, with others, as one of the
leaders in the controversy with New York over
land titles, which had begun about 1765. In May,
1772, in a spirited correspondence between Gov.
Tryon of New York and the Bennington settlers,
in which Dewey took a prominent part, Tryon suggested Dewey and two others as proper messengers
for a conference on the matter in dispute. The result was that Tryon modified his demands not a
little. During the Revolution Dewey preached
such vigorous war sermons, especially at the time
of Baum's invasion of Vermont and the battle of
Bennington, that he earned the title of "the fighting parson." His tombstone at Bennington bears
the following inscription: "Rev. Mr. Jedediah
Dewey, First Pastor of the Church in Bennington,
who after a laborious life in the Gospel Ministry
resigned his office in God's Temple for the sublime
employment of Immortality Dec. 21,1778. In the
65 year of his Age. 'Of comfort, no man speak
Lets talk of graves and worms and epitaphs. Make
dust our paper and with Rainey eyes, Write sorrow in the bosom of the earth.'"
DEWEY, Joel Allen, soldier, b. in Georgia,
Franklin co., Vt., 20 Sept., 1840; d. in Knoxville,
Tenn., 17 June, 1873. He entered Oberlin in 1858,
but left in 1861 to enter the National army, and
served as 1st lieutenant and captain of Ohio volunteers under Gen. John Pope in the west, and then
with Gen. William T. Sherman. He was at one
time on the staff of Gen. William S. Rosecrans.
He became colonel of the lllth U. S. colored regiment in 1863, and led a brigade near Huntsville.
He was captured near Athens, Ala., in September,
1864, after a day's severe engagement with Gen.
Forrest's cavalry. After his liberation in November he served in Tennessee and northern Alabama
till the close of the war. He was commissioned
brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 Dec., 1865,
and was mustered out, 31 Jan., 1866, after declining a captain's commission in the regular army.
Gen. Dewey then entered the law-school at Albany,
N. Y.. where he was graduated in 1867, and practised in Dandridge, Tenn. In 1869 he was elected
attorney-general of the state.
DEWING, Thomas Willmer, artist, b. in Boston. Mass., 4 .May. 1852. He studied in 1876-'9
under Jules J. Lefcbvre in Paris. His more important paintings are "Young Sorcerer" (1877);
"Morning" (1879); "Prelude" (1883); "A Garden" (1884): "The Days," which gained the Clarke
prize in 1887 (1884-'6): and "Tobias and the Angel" (1887). He has produced, among other portrait.", those of Mrs. Lloyd Bryce. Mrs. Robert
Goelet, and Mrs. Delancey Kane. He is a member
of the Society of American artists, and was elected
an associate member of the National academy in
1887, and an academician the year following.— His