SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF PKOF. CHESTER DEWEY, D. D., LL. D., 



Laic Professor of cliemistry and natural hisfori/ in the Unircrsitij of Rochester, and for many 

 years a correspondent of the ><mithsunian Institution. 



By M.\rtin B. Andeusox, LL. D., President of the Unirersity of Rochester. 



Chester Dewey, D. I)., LL. D., nt tbe time of bis death emeritus 

 professor iu the University of Eochester, was in two respects a repre- 

 sentative man. He was not only a typical teacher, but he also held n 

 distinguished position among tbe few who at an early day cultivated and 

 organized the study of natural science in America. In these two rela- 

 tions we propose to speak of bis life and labors. 



Dr. Dewey was born in Shef&eld, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 

 October 25, 1784. His father was a man of strong character and clear 

 head, who seems to have had the will and the capacity to give his son 

 a most symmetrical training, both moral and intellectual. In this work 

 the father was aided by a wife of singular piety, cheerfulness, and moral 

 excellence. It was doubtless to these early formative inliuences that Dr. 

 Dewey owed much of that moral completeness which adorned the whole 

 of his subsequent life. After a youth spent in alternate labor on the 

 farm, and study in the common school, he fitted himself to enter the 

 college at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in his eighteenth year. He 

 graduated iu 180G, taking rank as a scholar among the first iu his class. 

 During his residence in college he became the subject of those deep 

 religious convictions, by which he ever after ordered his entire life. In 

 1807, he was licensed to preach by the Berkshire Congregationalist Asso- 

 ciation. After teaching and preaching for a few months at Stockbridge 

 and Tyringham, Massachusetts, he was appointed a tutor in Williams 

 College. After two years' service iu this capacity, he was elected (at 

 the age of twenty-six) professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. 

 He held this position till 1827, a period of seventeen years. During 

 this time the college was jjoor, and struggling for life. Of necessity, a 

 heavy burden of labor and responsibility rested upon the officers of 

 instruction. Among these, Dr. Dewey bore a distinguished part. In 

 times of confusion and internal disorder, his influence over the students 

 is said to have been most salutary and powerful. According to tlie 

 custom of the time, his department of instruction induded not onlj' 

 mathematics and physics, but the whole range of chemistry and the 

 natural sciences. 



He entered upon the work of accumulating and organizing the 

 apparatus and collections requisite for the study of chemistry and natu- 



