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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
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