Orville Dewey (1794 – 1882) was a popular lecturer, author, and preacher during the mid to late 1800s. Dewey was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Williams College in 1814. While at college he became seriously interested in becoming a minister but his bad eyesight (caused by a bout with measles) forced him to take a break from his academic studies instead of going straight into seminary. After a few years of working as both a teacher and store clerk. The calling he felt for ministry did not go away, however, and by 1819 he had graduated from Andover Theological Seminary.
Despite being raised in a Calvinist environment, after Dewey became the pastor of several Unitarian churches. His health, however, repeatedly forced him to step down from leading these churches and eventually dewey retired to focus upon writing and lecturing which proved to be quite successful. As an interesting side note, Orville Wright, one of the famous Wright brothers who developed the first successful airplane, was named after Dewey.
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