H. P. Dewey, lumber dealer, and a prominent citizen of Tullahoma, was born in Michigan in 1838, and is the son of Cyrus J. and Maria (Beulah) Dewey, natives of the Green Mountain State. The father was born in 1812 and died in 1864, and the mother was born in 1813 and died in 1853. Both were members of the Old School Presbyterian Church.
Our subject was raised in Washington County, Michigan, and educated in the public schools and at Monroe College, Michigan. He farmed and attended school alternately until the fall of 1862; he became a member of Company H, Eighteenth Regiment Michigan Infantry, and served until honorably discharged in June 1865. He then spent a year in Iowa at general merchandising. He returned to Michigan in 1867, and after a year’s farming, engaged in steam saw milling. In 1874 the firm removed their mill to Franklin County, Tennessee, six miles below Winchester. In 1880 he was appointed United States guager in the revenue department and in 1881 came to Tullahoma. He engaged in his present business in the spring of 1886.
Mr. Dewey was married, January 16, 1866, to Minnie E., daughter of Nathaniel Gardner, of Coldwater, Michigan, she being born in 1849. Their two children are Lillie E., born October 1867, and Eddie L., born November 1869. He was elected alderman in 1885, receiving 328 out of 368 votes cast. He is a conservative republican. Our subject, wife and daughter, are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he being a trustee and his wife class teacher of the same.