Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/113

Rh DE VOE, Thomas Farrington, author, b. in Yonkers. N. Y., 15 Manh, 1811 ; d. in New York city, 1 Feb., 1892. His ancestor, Frederick de Veaux, fled from France to Germany when a boy to escape religious persecution, and came to New York about 1077. Thomas was educated at private schools, and became a butclier and cattle-dealer. He was afterward superintendent of markets, in which ollice ho instituted many reforms, and then collector of the city revenue till 1884, when he re- signed. He was fur ten years a manager of the American institute, and took much intere.st in his- torical research. De Voe was colonel of a regi- ment that volunteered for the Mexican war. and later became colonel of the 8th New York infantry. He read before the Long Island historical society "Historical Keminisc-ences of Brooklyn," and he published "The Market Book" (New York, 1862); " The Market Assistant " (Boston, 1867) ; and " The De Veaux Genealogy " (New York, 1885).

DEWEY, George, naval officer, b. in Montpelier, Vt., 26 Dec., 1837. He is descended from that Thomas Dewey from Sandwich, Kent, who landed at Dorchester about 1633, was admitted a freeman 14 May, 1684, and who married 22 March, 1639, at Windsor, Conn., Frances Clark, widow of Joseph Clark. His father, Julius Yemans Dewey, was born 22 Aug., 1801, at Berlin, Vt., and, after graduation from the medical department of the University of Vermont, practised medicine in Montpelier until 1850, when he became connected with the National life insurance company; his mother was Mary Perrin, whom his father married 9 June, 1829, at Berlin, Vt., and who died 3 Sept., 1843, at Montpelier. George was the third of four children. His birthplace is seen in the accompanying illustration. His boyhood was the usual boyhood of a healthy, vigorous lad in a New England village; there was plenty of out-door life, there were as many truant days from school as he could safely avail himself of, and there were the usual struggles that form so large a part of the life of a boy. His friends of those days tell how he learned to paddle and swim in the Onion (now Winooski)

river; how in boyish emulation he stayed under water until the spectators feared he was drowned; how he pulled from the water and saved from drowning one of his weaker companions. His school-teacher, Major Z. K. Pangborn, relates the experience of his first few days as teacher in the Montpelier school. Several of his predecessors had been driven off by a close little ring of the older pupils, of which Dewey was the leader. Trifling annoying of young Pangborn, then fresh from college, on the first day gave place to snowballing on the second, and to a well-planned attack upon him in the schoolroom itself on the third. It

was only by the aid of a rawhide whip and several hickory sticks that the teacher succeeded in bringing to terms young Dewey and the other heads of the rebellion; he then sent them home, still smarting from their stinging punishment. This lesson was well learned &mdash; there was no further trouble in the school; and when Major Pangborn went to Johnson, Vt., to establish a private academy, Dewey went with him. The boy was then fourteen years old. One year later he was sent to the Norwich military academy, then at Norwich but now at Northfield, Vt. Here a taste for military affairs developed itself; West Point was thought of, but the attractions of the naval academy at Annapolis proved stronger. The father opposed this inclination, but prudently yielded when he saw it was a serious desire in the boy's mind.

He was appointed alternate to the vacancy existing at Annapolis for Vermont, but George Spaulding, his schoolmate at Norwich, who had received the appointment, failed to qualify, and so young Dewey entered the naval academy in 1854. During his four years at Annapolis he kept a good rank in his class, took an active interest in the social amenities that were afforded, and was a vigorous participant in the political and sectional discussions rife in the decade preceding the civil war. It is told that on one occasion he avenged a fancied insult on the north by a blow from his fist; a challenge to a duel with pistols was promptly sent by the young southerner, and was as promptly accepted by Dewey; cooler heads, however, among the cadets, informed the officer of the day, and the affair was stopped. The class that entered in 1854 contained about sixty members, but of this number only fourteen graduated in 1858; Dewey was fifth in rank. His first assignment to duty was as midshipman on the steam-frigate &ldquo;Wabash,&rdquo; under command of Capt. Samuel Marion, who afterward became commodore in the Confederate navy. The illustration represents him at this time. The &ldquo;Wabash&rdquo; was then on the Mediterranean station, and attracted no little attention at the ports she visited, for this was in the early days of steam as applied to warships, and the type of frigate evolved by American builders was full of interest to foreign naval officers. This cruise gave Dewey an opportunity to visit the Holy Land and to send home various mementos of his visit to his Vermont friends and relatives. In 1860 he was ordered back to Annapolis for examination as passed midshipman; he succeeded in advancing himself two numbers, making his final rating in the class number three.

At the outbreak of the civil war he was commissioned lieutenant, and ordered to the steam-sloop &ldquo;Mississippi&rdquo; on the Gulf squadron. Early in 1862 Farragut was assigned to the squadron as flag-officer, and at once he began preparations for forcing his way up the Mississippi past Forts Jackson and St. Philip to take New Orleans. By February the heavy-draught ships of the squadron had been lightened sufficiently to allow them to cross the bar and to ascend the river. On the April day on which the forts were to be passed