Summary Information
Nelson Dewey Papers
1818-1907
Wis Mss DK
2.6 c.f. (11 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers, mainly 1836-1889, of Wisconsin's first governor, Nelson Dewey, a resident of Lancaster and Cassville. The papers primarily document real estate investments, both his own and that of others whose interests Dewey represented. The records consist of correspondence, deeds, mortgages, and legal agreements, abstracts, lists, and financial record books. Client files contain records of this type for individuals such as Gerrit V. Denniston of Albany, New York, the initial developer of Cassville, and Joel Allen Barber, Dewey's law partner and a Wisconsin congressman. Despite their extent, the files of Dewey and his partners, Denniston and Barber, are limited for the early years. A large file concerns Congressman Ben C. Eastman of Platteville, whose complicated estate was settled by Dewey. This file includes letters that might properly be considered Eastman's papers, as well as Dewey's legal correspondence with Eastman's widow Charlotte and others. Other Wisconsin individuals who appear in the business files include William A. Barstow, Ira Brunson, Nathaniel Dean, George Delaplaine, and Cyrus Woodman. Congressman Henry Hubbard of Charlestown, New Hampshire, is one of the many Eastern speculators whom Dewey represented. The only personal material in the collection consists of letters from Dewey's brother James in New York City; an inventory of Stonefield, Dewey's home at Cassville that burned in 1873; and receipts and checks documenting personal expenses, 1839-1874. Diaries, which are scattered from 1854 to 1889, provide limited information, as they contain only brief notations about travel and health. However, they do include property memoranda and detailed annual expense lists which supplement the previously mentioned personal information. There are no political papers except for handwritten copies of his annual messages to the Legislature.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000dk ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Related Material
An autobiography by Nelson Dewey, dated November 24, 1887, was published in The Teller (Lancaster, Wisconsin), August 1, 1907 (Vol. XXV, No. 31 of the weekly edition). This is available in the Microforms Room of the Historical Society's Library.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by R. A. Watkins, Mrs. Elizabeth Bell, Mrs. Walter Kleinpell, Mrs. M. S. Stephens, and Mrs. Elizabeth S. Kingston at various times. Diaries in Box 11 found in the attic of the Dewey home in 1979. Accession Number: M79-526
Contents List
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Abstracts
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
Commissions, appointments, certificates
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3-6
|
Correspondence
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
Cash book and family expenses, 1845-1866, and Daybook and ledger, 1838-1848 (two volumes)
: A ledger and account book, 1846-1889, which was originally part of this collection, was missing when the collection was reorganized in 2008.
|
|
|
Deeds
|
|
|
Dewey
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1-5
|
1838-1855
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1-5
|
1865-1870, Undated
|
|
|
Deeds to which Dewey was not a party
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
1-4
|
1835-1869
|
|
|
Box
5
Folder
1
|
1871-1887
|
|
|
Diaries
|
|
|
Box
5
Folder
2-5
|
1854-1863, 1865-1866
|
|
|
Box
6
Folder
1-5
|
1867, 1870-1871, 1873-1875, 1877-1878, 1881, 1883-1884, 1886- 1889
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
1
|
Estate matters
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
2
|
House fire, insurance, and inventory
|
|
|
Box
11
Folder
1-4
|
Land office certificates, 1837-1854
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
3
|
Leases
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
4
|
Property lists
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
5-8
|
Receipts and personal checks, 1839-1874
|
|
|
Individual client files
|
|
|
Box
7
Folder
9
|
Barber, Joel Allen (and Dewey & Allen)
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
1
|
Barstow, William A., 1855
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
2
|
Beaumont, Deborah
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
3
|
Benson, Isaac
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
4
|
Burnet, John D., 1840-1843
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
5
|
Brunson, Ira & Frederic
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
6
|
Clark, Southwirth & Tilden
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
7
|
Daniels, L. I.
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
8
|
Dean, Nathaniel, 1854-1868
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
9
|
Delaplaine, George, 1855-1867
|
|
|
Denniston, Gerrit V.
|
|
|
Box
8
Folder
10
|
Deeds
|
|
|
Box
9
Folder
1
|
Deeds, continued
|
|
|
Box
9
Folder
2
|
Dewey family
|
|
|
Eastman, Ben C. & Charlotte
|
|
|
Box
9
Folder
3
|
Correspondence, 1842-1871
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
1
|
Property lists, inventories, and accounts
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
2-3
|
Deeds
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
4
|
Platteville Academy bequest
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
5
|
Hastings, Samuel
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
6
|
Hubbard, Henry, 1862-1866
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
7
|
McKim, William
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
8
|
Norris, George, 1837-1838
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
9
|
Pepper guardianship
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
10
|
Rockwell, Lester, 1858-1864
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
11
|
Tompkins, Dorothy, Estate
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
12
|
Woodman, Cyrus, 1842-1864
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
13
|
Wells, Daniel
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
14
|
Wister, Charles
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
15
|
Miscellaneous property records
|
|
|
Box
10
Folder
16
|
Message to the Wisconsin Legislature
|
|
|
