Watson W. Dewees was a minister in Philadelphia YM and a long time teacher and historian at Westtown School.
Dewees was born in Belmont County, Ohio. His parents were members at Stillwater, but his family worshipped at Sunbury, which was part of Somerset MM. Most of the Dewees family moved to Pennsville in 1851.
WWD spent the middle third of his life at Westtown School. His father sent him there as a student, and he served as a teacher there from 1866 to 1904, beginning as a student teacher. He taught history there and wrote a history of Westtown. He edited the "Westonian" for a decade. WWD was described in his obituary as "one of the most beloved of the Westtown teachers."
In 1892, WWD attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was greatly impressed. He prepared an illustrated lecture on the event both to inform others about the Exposition in case they wanted to go and also to tell people afterwards about it.
In 1904, WWD and his wife Sarah Lovett Brown moved to Haverford, where they lived the remainder of their lives. WWD served for many years as a minister at Haverford. He also purchased a camera and photographed many Friends meeting houses in the early 20th century - several of which are the only known photographs of those buildings (including Captina, Ohio). Sarah Dewees died in 1921.
Note: much of this information comes from WWD's obituary, published in the (West Chester, Pa.) Daily Local News, 2/27/1929. |
