# American Medical Biographies/Dewey, Chester

​Dewey, Chester (1784–1867).
Chester Dewey, botanist, geologist, chemist and lecturer in medical colleges, was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, October 25, 1784, son of Stephen Dewey and Elizabeth Owen; he was descended from Thomas Dewey, first settler in Dorchester, Massachusetts, about 1634. He graduated A. B. at Williams College in 1806, and studied divinity under Dr. Stephen West of Stockbridge, Mass.; was licensed to preach, and settled as minister in Tyringham, Mass.; the next year he was called to Williams College as tutor, and thus began a long career as a teacher. He was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Williams College (1810–1827); principal of Berkshire Gymnasium in Pittsfield, Mass. (1827–1836); principal of the High School, afterwards known as the Collegiate Institute, in Rochester, New York (1836–1850); professor of chemistry and the natural sciences in the University of Rochester, N. Y. (1850–1861); and emeritus professor from 1861 until his death. His connection with the medical profession was as teacher, not as practitioner. He was professor of chemistry, botany and natural philosophy in the Berkshire Medical Institution from 1822 to 1852 and lecturer in the Medical School in Woodstock, Vermont, from 1842–1849. He was chaplain of the First Massachusetts Infantry in the war of 1812. He never abandoned the ministry, but for more than fifty years ​preached in many places as his services were needed in the churches.
He was the author of "History of Berkshire County" (1829) (in part); and of "Herbaceous Plants of Massachusetts" (1840), published by the State. He contributed to O'Reilly's "History of Rochester" (1838), and was one of the first to write on carices; many contributions were made to Silliman's Journal of Science and other scientific periodicals. For sixty years he regularly recorded meteorological observations.
Yale University conferred on him the degree of M. A. in 1809; Williams gave him A. M. in 1809, honorary M. D. in 1825, and LL. D. in 1850; in 1838 he received D. D. from Union College.
Early in life Dr. Dewey became an enthusiastic student of botany, and contributed very largely to the scientific knowledge of the carices. Dr. Asa Gray classed him with Schweinitz and Torrey, and speaks of his work on Caricography as an "elaborate monograph patiently prosecuted through more than forty years." He further says that in connection with the two botanists above mentioned "he laid the foundation and ensured the popularity of the study of the sedges in this country." His "Caricography," begun in 1824, was continued down to the close of 1866, when it terminated with a general index to species.
When Dr. Dewey left college in 1806, a remarkable impulse was just being given to scientific inquiry, resulting in an almost simultaneous development of chemistry, zoology, botany and geology. As a teacher of the Natural Sciences he kept fully informed and abreast of the times, and this was the case up to the end of his life. All through his career he was in correspondence with the most eminent leaders in scientific investigation, both in this country and abroad. In an "Introductory Lecture" to the medical class of the Berkshire Medical Institution delivered August 5, 1847, he says that "progress is the order of the day" and asks "what shall be done to elevate the profession?" He then describes in detail the convention held in New York in May, 1846, to form the American Medical Association, explaining and commending the purposes of that organization. Up to 1847 the text books on botany in common use were arranged after the Linnaean method, but the natural system had been slowly making its way, and Dr. Dewey was in full accord with it.
Wood's "Class-Book of Botany," the first in this country containing a flora arranged with the natural orders, was dedicated to Dr. Dewey, and in the preface the author says: "To the Rev. Professor Chester Dewey, to whom I am permitted to dedicate this volume, I am indebted for that part of the flora which relates to the difficult, yet deeply interesting, family of the carices. He has not only granted me access to his former excellent monoraph of that genus, but has prepared the article for the present work with his own hand."
In his work in Rochester, Dr. Dewey examined and re-examined the flora of the region, while at the same time he was training the youth to share his interest in botanical pursuits. His last labors were the orderly arrangement of his large collection of sedges which had been accumulating on his hands for so many years. This collection, at his request, went to Williams College.
Dr. Dewey's life was one of unremitting toil in many fields of research. He had an insatiate desire to acquire knowledge, then to disseminate it among the people in language adapted to their understanding. He was a constant contributor to Silliman's Journal and to the local papers on scientific subjects and always had pupils or friends who looked to him for encouragement and instruction.
Dr. Dewey married Sarah Dewey in 1810; they had five children. She died in 1823 and in 1825 he married Olivia Hart Pomeroy of Pittsfield, Mass.; they had ten children.
Dr. Dewey, active in scientific observation almost to the day of his death, died in Rochester, December 15, 1867.