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- Newspaper Obituary - Thursday, July 31, 1890 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - South Richland - Died, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the 7th inst., Mrs. Polly Maria Dewey Babcock, in the 72nd year of her age. Somewhere between eighty and ninety years ago, a young man named David Dewey came to South Richland, then nearly all a wilderness, and engaged a young carpenter named Worthy Waters to build a "tavern" for him on the corner of the Salt road, four miles from Pulaski. It was a large two story frame building afterwards so well known as Dewey's tavern, and later as Tinker's tavern. Now, much altered and modernized, it is the farm residence of B. E. Champlin. Mr. Dewey married Miss Roxy Holmes, daughter of Rev. Jesseniah Holmes, a Baptist clergyman, who lived where T. R. Atwood does now. To them were born seven children, two sons and five daughters. One of the songs, Harrison, died when a young man. The other son, the well-known J. Nelson Dewey, married Elvira Richards, sister of the late Hiel Richards, grandfather of J. W. Richards, of Pulaski, and lived on the farm now owned by L. J. Hawley, and occupied by J. Barclay. Of the daughters, P. Maria was next to the youngest. She was born in South Richland, February 17, 1819. She was a very noticeable woman, being very large, masculine looking. Her voice was very soft and well-modulated. She possessed more than ordinary intelligence, and was well educated, and a very superior teacher, which occupation she followed for about twelve years. She taught a select school in the schoolhouse near her home, and one in the village of Prattham. Her schools were always well patronized by students from near and far. Somewhere about 1849 she became one of the faculty of the Central New York College, in McGrawville, a manual labor school, with a farm attached. At that time the overseer of the farm was Samuel Babcock. His wife died, leaving him with a large family of children. On August 12, 1851, he was married to Prof. P. Maria Dewey. The ceremony was performed by Rev. John Everingham, (I think) at the residence of her brother, J. Nelson Dewey. A son and daughter of Mr. Babcock, acted in his first groomsman and bridesmaid, and A. S. Richard and Miss Charlotte Dewey as second. The wedding was a very stylish affair for the times. After the ceremony the company crossed the yard to the house occupied by the bride's mother and sister, Marcia, where a sumptuous dinner was served. Several of the company accompanied the newly wedded pair to Sand Bank, the nearest railroad station, where they took the train for Albany and elsewhere. They were gone about a week on their wedding tour and then returned to his home in McGrawville. Miss Dewey was a Methodist of the Methodists; a great worker in revivals and camp meetings. Mr. Babcock was a Baptist, and so after marriage she united with that denomination, of which she was "a consistent and highly esteemed member." In 1869 the removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she died on the 7th inst. Her funeral took place at the Baptist Church in that place. "Her remains were brought to homer, New York, for interment, with the graves of her kindred," says the Oswego Times. There must be some mistake about this, as her kindred are nearly all buried in the South Richland Cemetery, East of B. E. Champlin's. One of her sisters is Mrs. Marcia A. Brown, of Oswego, and another, Mrs. Charlotte D. Wilbur, an authoress of some celebrity. Many of the former pupils of the deceased in Richland remember her well. Perhaps no one has ever lived here to whom the term "good" could be more appropriately applied than to Mrs. P. Maria Dewey-Babcock.
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1787 - 1853 (65 years)