Jedediah Dewey
1714-1778
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After his common school education in Westfield, Massachusetts, Jedediah Dewey learned the carpentry trade. At the age of 23 he joined the Church at Westfield, but when the church adopted the "half-way covenant", Dewey left the congregation, joined the Separatists, and became a preacher in that new division of the church.
In May of 1763, shortly after the church in Bennington was organized, a call was extended to Reverend Dewey, and by late summer Dewey began his ministry here, at Vermont's first Protestant Church, until his death in 1778.
Dewey took an active part in secular affairs as well as the spiritual, being indicted at Albany in 1770 as one of the leaders in the controversial New York land titles. During the American Revolution, Dewey preached with such vigor that he earned the title of the fighting parson.
It should be noted that Jedediah Dewey and Ethan Allen, while both crucial to the region's history, were known to have their clashes. During a sermon where Dewey offered thanks to God on the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, Allen grew increasingly agitated as the minister gave a never-ending prayer, thanking God over and over again with the most abject humility for the great fort's downfall. When Allen could no longer contain himself, to the astonishment of the congregation, he stood and spoke directly to Parson Dewey in a loud voice that "God had not reduced the fort without assistance, aren't you going to mention the fact that I was there?". To which Parson Dewey sternly replied: "Ethan Allen, thou great infidel, sit down and be quiet!"
