Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-08-25
A STORY ABOUT DEWEY.
He Refused to Die From an Opsration-Hh
Descent From Alfred the Great.


Mia became known, the extraordinary
interest that was developed in the hero
of it was indicated by stories about
Dewey which were printed in the news
papers not only of this country, but OF
Europe. 1t was known that Dewey
had undergone very serious operation
a few years ago, and correspondent
of the Birmingham Post in England
has this to say about it:
Il dare say the citizens of the Unit
ed States generally are not aware how
very near they came to losing Admiral
Dewey early in 1888, and that the fact
of his being still alive is, humanity
speaking, largely due to the clever sur
gerry of Inspector-General of Hospitals
j. N. Dick, r. N. Qate Medical Direc-
tor-General of the Navy, and Drs
Fitzgerald and Yeo, r. N, surgeons
of Malta Naval Hospital at that time
In February, 1888, | was patient
there; another was Admiral Dewey,
then in command of the United States
corvette Juniata. He suffered from
abscess of the liver in a very complex
form, and was not expected to survive
an operation to which he had to SUBJ
nit The yarn we heard was that,
when about to undergo it, the last
words he murmured before he became
quite under the influence of the anaes-
thetic were, I've made up my mind,
and | won't die and he didn't, to the
general astonishment. After he be-
came convalescent | used sometimes to
push him about the hospital gardens
in bath chair, and on one occasion
| remember his saying to me (apropos
of the operation), You know, I've got
a wife and children depending on me
at home, and | couldn't afford to die
just then l know that the doctors
said that nothing but his extraordinary
determination pulled him through, and
that they never had a pluckier pa
tient."
A few years ago man named
Browning took advantage of the grow
ing interest in genealogical investiga-
tion in this country to publish a vol
ume called Americans of Royal De-
scent" in which he proved to his own
satisfaction and that of some of his
credulous patrons that nearly every
New England family could claim de-
scent from one or more English Kings.
1t was not unlike a recent book which
proves just as conclusively that every
Irish family may be traced back to
royalty, and in this book Browning
has included Rear Admiral Dewey and
assigned Alfred the Great as an ances-
tor of his in the following fashion:
Thomas Dewey came from Sand
wich. Kent, England, in the year 1888,
to Dorchester, Mass. He removed
about 1888 to Windsor, Conn, where,
on March 22 1888, he married the wild
ow Frances Clarke. He died at Wind
sor, April 27, 164S. His son, Josiah
Dewey, born 1641, settled first at West
field but subsequently removed to
Lebanon, Conn. He married in 1862
Hepzibah Lyman. Hepzibah Lyman
was the daughter of Richard Lyman of
Windsor, Conn, who died in 1862.
Richard Lyman was the sixth in de-
scent from Elizabeth Lambert, who
married Thomas Lyman of Navistoke,
Essex, England, who died in 1909. Eli
zabeth was the daughter of Henry
Lambert of Ongar, Essex, who was the
seventeenth in descent from Princess
Edgina, the granddaughter of Alfred,
and the daughter of King Edward the
Elder. She, after the death of her
first husband, Charles III of France,
married Henry, third Count de Ver-
mandois and Troyes. Her grand
daughter married the son of Henry
of France, and their son, Robert, was
the first Earl of leicester. Robert
great granddaughter married the first
Earl of Winchester, and her grand
daughter married descendant of Don
albane, King of Scotland
Seventh in descent from this last
couple was the Robert Lambert re-
ferred to, and from his daughter de-
scended the Richard Lyman who was
father to the Hepzibah who married
the ancestor of Admiral Dewey. From
Josiah Dewey and Hepzibah Lyman
the descent is as follows:
1. Josiah Dewey of Lebanon, Conn.,,
born 1866.
2. William Dewey of Lebanon,
Conn.,, born 1892; died 1859.
3. Simeon Dewey of Lebanon
Conn, born 171S; died 1751
A. William Dewey, settled at Han
over, N. H.; born 1746; died 1873
S. Capt. Simeon Dewey of Berlin
VT, born ITO; died 1863
g. Julius Y. Dewey of Montpelier
VT, born 1901; died 1877
z. Admiral George Dewey, born
1887.
Ancient Signaling.
ho Col oF hot Lo a..