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| ELIJAH F. DEWEY, attorney at law and justice of the peace, Big Rapids, was born at Ovid, Seneca Co., N. Y., May 1, 1837. His father was a millwright and carpenter. Mr. Dewey was brought up on a farm and attended the common schools until he was 19 years of age, when he became a student at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, his unlce being a proffesor at that institution. He he pursued a full literary and classical course of study, graduating in June, 1860. His first engagement was as Assistant Principal of the High School at Pontiac, Oakland Co., Mich. Upon the expiration of this engagement he went to Chicago as reporter on the Times. A year after, in company with A. C. Wheeler, he started a literary paper in Chicago, - The Spirit of the West, - which he ran a few months, and subsequently accepted an engagement in the office of the Provost Marshal at Pontiac, Mich., meanwhile studying law with his brother Judge J. S. Dewey. He was admitted to the bar in 1866 and engaged in practice. He came to Big Rapids in the winter of 1868 and at once entered upon the practice of his profession. He served as Circuit Court Commissioner in 1870 - '71. During the year 1970 he was Recoder at Big Rapids. He was first elected Justice of the Peace in 1869, and has occupied the position most of the time since. His business as attorney and magistrate is successful and steady. He also operates to some extent in real estate. Mr. Dewey was married at Pontiac in December, 1867, to Sarah L., daughter of the late Hon. Rufus and Sarah (Chamberlain) Hosmer. Her father was a prominent politician, and was for some years the editor of the Old Detroit Advertiser, and was afterward editor and one of the proprietors of the Lansing Republican. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln Counsel General to Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, and died while making preparations to assume the duties of the appointment. Mrs. Dewey was born in Pontiac, Mich. The family includes four children - Harry S., Josephine H., Mary L. and Rufus H. |