U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dewey, Orville C. (1833-1902) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Men of West Virginia, Volume II Biographical Publishing Company George Richmond, Pres.: C. R. Arnold, Sec'y and Treas. Chicago, Illinois, 1903 Pages 646-650 ORVILLE C. DEWEY, for many years one of Wheeling's most distinguished citizens, residing of late years in his beautiful home at Echo Point, a suburb of which he was the founder, died early in 1902. He was born at Cadiz, Ohio, November 12, 1833. On his paternal side, he was descended from ancestors who were of the old Puritan stock, and were prominently identified with the early history of the New England colonies. The first of the family to settle in America was Thomas Dewey, who emigrated from Sandwich, Kent County, England, under Governor Winthrop and Rev. John Warham, in 1630. and became the founder of the family in Massachusetts. From him was descended a line of the Dewey family, who have ever been distinguished, not only in the New England States, but in the Western country, in which many of them subsequently made their homes. The monument erected to Thomas Dewey, Jr., the first of the family born in America, who died in 1690, is standing to-day in the cemetery at Westfield, Massachusetts. From the second son, Josiah Dewey, descended the famous Admiral George Dewey, the celebrated Congregational preacher, Rev. Orville Dewey, and that noted lawyer and banker, Chauncey Dewey, of Cadiz, Ohio, father of Orville C. Dewey. Orville C. Dewey was educated in Cadiz, Ohio, and after a year in the Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio, went to Cincinnati to learn the theory of bookkeeping under John Gundry. After several years of service as bookkeeper in the edge-tool manufacturing firm of Seybold & Company, and in the great grocery house of William Glenn & Son, both in Cincinnati, he went in 1856 to Philadelphia and became a clerk in the house of Kilgore, Wilson & Company (wholesale grocers), his father being the company. He received the munificent salary of $40 per month. His father sold his interest in the firm in 1860, and our subject removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he spent the last 40 years of his life. His brother, Eliphalet C. Dewey, who was a wholesale grocer in Bridgeport, Ohio, located in Wheeling in 1848, and erected the first wire mills west of New England. Being of a mechanical turn of mind, he erected the Eagle Rolling Mill at the head of 24th street, and conducted the plant very profitably until the hard times existing from 1855 to 1857 carried him down. He turned over his mill to his father (who being his endorser, assumed his liabilities), and then went to Texas, where he became a planter on the Brazos River, and died there in 1882. His father rented the mill to Pendleton & Company, and Orville C. Dewey became a member of the firm in 1861, having as partners, Joseph Pendleton, James Porter, William H. Russell, J. M. Todd and R. Watkins. Within two months after the time when he entered the firm, the mill burned down and the firm was dissolved. The mill having been rebuilt in 1861, he formed a new firm consisting of himself, J. N. Vance and William H. Russell, under the firm name of Dewey, Vance & Company, with a capital of $15,000. At that time the mill contained only three puddling furnaces, one scraping furnace, one crocodile squeezer, one set, two high muck rolls, one eight-inch guide mill, and one 12-inch bar mill. For two years, until a tariff was placed on iron, times were hard, money was scarce, wages were low, and profits were insignificant, for England was sending iron via Baltimore and delivering it to the stores in Wheeling cheaper than it could be made in Center Wheeling and hauled up town. Puddled muck-iron cost $15 per ton in Wheeling, while in England it could be bought for $5 per ton. The introduction of Bessemer process reduced the handicap from $10 per ton to 50 cents per ton, and then the industry thrived. Those were called good old Democratic times, but the Republican tariff changed all that. In addition to iron, England had been supplying commodities for wear, and for use in the arts and sciences. But while England had only a limited amount of iron, the United States had an unfailing supply of the ore required for the production of Bessemer steel, and the United States has thus secured the markets of the world for this product. The demand for iron increased immensely after the enactment of the tariff law, and forced an increase in capacity, so that in 1870 the firm had erected 45 puddling furnaces, which were running night and day, and increased the output from three tons to 90 tons per day. It was then decided to erect a nail factory at the corner of Water and 23rd streets. Mr. Dewey, after an exhaustive study of the factories of the country erected there the largest, finest and most complete factory in the country. With the improvements introduced by him, the machines produced 300,000 more kegs,, per annum, than any mill in the country of the same size. The strike of the mill workers was the greatest blow the city of Wheeling has ever had. At that time, of the ten million kegs of nails annually produced in the United States, seven and a half million or three- fourths of the entire output were made in Wheeling. By the time the strike was settled, the wire nail had been introduced, and so completely captured the market that not more than a half million kegs per year of the old style are now made in Wheeling. Desiring to obtain iron of better quality, it was decided by the firm to build a furnace for that purpose, the second on the Ohio River below Pittsburg. A location was found near Benwood, and there was erected in 1871 a furnace that was not second to any in the United States. These vast improvements evidently developed the inventive talent that was latent in him for Mr. Dewey made many improvements in mill, factory and furnace, all labor saving in their nature. He contrived a machine for breaking up old car wheels, that reduced the necessary working force from 12 men to four men on every 12 tons. He increased the width of the nail plate from 12 inches to 15 inches, a great help in the output of nails. He introduced a self- acting plate cropper, a shove-under, to relieve the labor in passing the heavy, wide plate under the rolls (an improvement which he patented). He made a change in the bluing machine that saved many a dollar. He devised a new method of heating large factories. At the blast furnace, he found that the old style of hydraulic hoists was very dirty in operation, and unsatisfactory, as well as the pneumatic and steam hoists in use. One day in going up the elevator in the Monongahela House, Pittsburg, he wondered what kind of a hoist it was, and returning to the office got permission to examine it. He was soon convinced that just such a hoist would answer the purpose. He at once went to New York, and after a short interview with the famous firm of Otis & Company, they agreed to make one of the proper size to do the work, and said they had been trying to introduce them many times, but had never found anyone with courage enough to adopt them. They promised to send him a gold-headed cane as a testimonial to the courage of his convictions. But the cane was never received. The Otis hoists, or something similar, are now used in every furnace throughout the United States. About this time, there came into the firm mainly through his instrumentality, Nathan Wilkinson, John D. Culbertson, Arthur McKee, W. L. Hearne, F. J. Hearne and several of his old workmen, who had always, up to that period been very faithful, and to some of whom he loaned money and his credit to enable them to become members of the firm. Today they are in very comfortable circumstances. To his men he was always a friend, and when he meets them now, they are pleased to speak of the good old days. About 1872, he sold out to his partners, and the name was changed from Dewey, Vance & Company to that of the Riverside Iron & Steel Works. Mr. Dewey was always very fond of music, and started Wheeling's first musical society, called the Philharmonic. This was afterwards changed to the Weisel Institute, in honor of Dr. Weisel who, among his other accomplishments, had shown great musical abilities, and had been made the leader by Mr. Dewey. He also established, and was a member of, the famous quartet of St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal Church, consisting of Mrs. Whitney, Mrs. W. H. Hennegen, Mr. Whipple and himself, all being now deceased. He was also very fond of paintings, and of art generally. After Mr. Dewey's marriage, July 22, 1868, to Elizabeth Good Tingle, a daughter of George T. Tingle, and granddaughter of Hon. Andrew P. Woods, of Wheeling, he bought and rebuilt the house on the corner of Ninth and Main streets. Wheeling, which he occupied for many years. His wife died May 12, 1882, leaving an only son, George Chauncey Dewey, who is in the mining business in Denver. In 1884, he bought part of the old Edgington place, east of the city, and until his death lived on this property, which he called Echo Point. This country life was a wise venture, for, where he had hardly a house in sight at first, he was soon able to count his neighbors by the hundreds, and the builder of the last house vies with his predecessors in following a dainty original design, affording every comfort and convenience. Mr. Dewey was a Republican in politics, but selected his candidates for county offices without regard to party. He was for several years a director of the Bank of the Ohio Valley, and for several years a vestryman of St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal Church. From its inception, he was a director of the famous Warwick China Company. He was one of the originators, and the first president, of the Fort Henry Club, and was a member of the Wheeling Golf Club. He belonged to the Phoenix Lodge of Masons, in Philadelphia. ------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTER OF DEATHS, within the District of Addison Israel, Assessor for the County of Ohio in the year ending 31st December 1902 (Page 178, Line No. 145) FULL-NAME: O. C. Dewey DEATH-DATE: March 5, 1902 AGE-AT-DEATH: 70 years DEATH-PLACE: Ohio County MARITAL-STATUS: Widower OCCUPATION: Retired FATHER: Chauncey D. CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Gangrene of Foot ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ohio County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ohio/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------