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Nelson Webster Dewey (December 19, 1813July 21, 1889) was an American lawyer, land speculator, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the first governor of Wisconsin, and also served in the Wisconsin Senate and served several years in the Wisconsin Territory government before Wisconsin achieved statehood. He was also particularly important in the development of Cassville, Wisconsin, which he had at one time hoped to make the state capitol.
Dewey's family moved to Butternuts, New York (now called Morris) the year following his birth and he attended school there and in Louisville, New York. At the age of 16, he began attending the Hamilton Academy in Hamilton, New York. He attended the academy for three years, and then returned to Butternut to teach.
Ebenezer Dewey, Dewey's father, was a lawyer, and wished his son to join the same profession. Dewey began studying law in 1833, first with his father, then with the law firm Hanen & Davies, then with Samuel S. Bowne in Cooperstown, New York. He left Bowne in May 1836, and in June of that year arrived in the lead-mining region of Galena, Illinois, working as a clerk for Daniels, Dennison & Co., a firm of land speculation from New York. About a week after he arrived, he moved to Cassville, Wisconsin. He became a citizen of the territory in 1836. Daniels, Dennison & Co. had purchased the land on which Cassville was built, and their plan was to develop and promote the village in the hopes that it grow and eventually be chosen as the capital of the Wisconsin Territory or of a future state.
In November 1838, Dewey was elected to the territorial assembly as representative from Grant County; he was reelected in 1840 and became that body's speaker for one session. He served as an assemblyman until 1842, when the voters of Grant County elected him to the territorial council; during the 1846 session, during which an upcoming convention which would produce a draft constitution for the State of Wisconsin was discussed, he served as the council's president. He failed to be re-elected in 1846, due to a new Whig majority in Grant County.
The election was held on May 8, 1848; Dewey defeated Whig candidate John Hubbard Tweedy and the independent Charles Durkee, and thus became the first governor of the State of Wisconsin. John E. Holmes, also a Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor in the same election.
Also in May, Dewey's law and business partnership with Barber came to an end; by the time of its dissolution, Dewey was known to be one of the leading men in Wisconsin.
Dewey was known for opposing the spread of slavery into new states and territories and for advocating the Direct election of U.S. Senators.
Near the end of his term, he married Catherine Dunn, (or Katherine) the daughter of Charles Dunn, the former chief justice of Wisconsin Territory.
Dewey was elected the first president of the Wisconsin Historical Society the same year.
Dewey lost much popular support during his terms as governor, due both to his inability to overcome the factionalism within his own party and to his association with Wisconsin's lead-mining regions, which were losing power in Wisconsin politics. He chose not to run for a third term.
In 1854, Dewey and his wife Catherine began to plan to begin anew the development of Cassville, once the goal of Daniels, Dennison & Co. In 1855, he was able to purchase the village under foreclosure; he remodelled the village plot and repaired the Denniston House, a hotel which had been built by the now-defunct firm, at a cost of $15,000; his ultimate hope was that Cassville would be developed into a large city. He also acquired about of land northwest of Cassville, on which he built a three-story Gothic-revival mansion, which he named "Stonefield", at a cost of about $70,000; he expended another $30,000 on of stone fence. It was said that to have been the most modern house in Wisconsin at that time. At this time, Dewey employed around forty to fifty men as a means of returning money to Cassville; it is said that this was the origin of the prosperity of several of Cassville's residents. Dewey lived in Cassville for the rest of his life, except the time from 1858 until 1863, when he lived at Platteville, Wisconsin. In 1863, Dewey unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor; he also lost his 1869 and 1871 attempts at re-election to State Senate.
Dewey's Cassville project was attracting few people, so he began investing in a railroad line to the village. On January 2, 1873, Dewey's mansion was destroyed in a fire, and he was forced to give up the property to pay his creditors. His property passed into the ownership of Walter C. Newberry of Chicago. Also this year, Dewey lost his entire investment in the railroad line during the Panic of 1873. At some time during this period, Dewey was involved in another financial setback involving the estate of the deceased Ben Eastman, a former Congressman, of which he was the executor. Dewey returned to his law practice.
In 1874, Governor William R. Taylor appointed Dewey to the board of directors of the State Prison at Waupun; he served on the board until 1881.
On February 22, 1889, Dewey suffered a stroke while at court in Lancaster. He was paralysis and was brought home to Cassville the next day. He was not well prior to this, and was apparently aware of the possibility of becoming paralyzed. From the time of his paralysis, he was almost entirely confined to bed. He died in poverty at the Denniston House, which he had helped rebuild, a few minutes past midnight on the morning of July 21, 1889, after being unconscious for the previous forty-eight hours. He was seventy-five years old.
Dewey was at one time considered a wealthy man, but by the time of his death, he had little money. Dewey was buried on July 23, 1889, in the Episcopal cemetery in Lancaster, next to the graves of his brother Orin and his son Charlie.
In 1886, Dewey filed for a divorce from his wife, but the matter never came to trial. Catherine eventually moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where her daughter and son-in-law lived.
Dewey had a brother named William Dewey, who survived him, and another brother, Orin, who died in 1840. He also a third brother, John J. Dewey, who was a physician who lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota and was a member of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature. Minnesota Legislators Past and Present-John J. Dewey
Dewey was called a "friend of the poor" and known for his generosity.
An 11-mile portion of Wisconsin state highway 81 from Cassville to the intersection of state highway 35 in Grant County was designated Nelson Dewey Memorial Highway by the Wisconsin Legislature.2011 Wisconsin Code 84.102 Governor Nelson Dewey Memorial Highway
The former Nelson Dewey Generating Station was named after the governor.
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