Nelson Dewey

Nelson Dewey

Nelson Dewey (born December 19, 1813 in Lebanon , New London County , Connecticut , † July 21, 1889 in Cassville , Wisconsin ) was an American politician and from 1848 to 1852 the first governor of the state of Wisconsin.

Early years

Nelson Dewey was born in Connecticut but moved to New York State early on with his family . There he also attended elementary school and the Hamilton Academy in Hamilton . After earning his living as a teacher for a few years, he studied law . In 1836 Dewey moved to the Wisconsin Territory for a land speculation firm , where he settled in Cassville. Dewey's company, speculating that Cassville would become the area's new capital, invested a lot of money in the city. When Madison became the new capital, the company went bankrupt and Dewey had to find a new job. He was employed in the administration of the new Grant County . He was also a justice of the peace in this district. After he was finally admitted to the bar in 1838, he became a district attorney in that county.

In 1838 Dewey was elected to the Territorial Parliament, of which he became President in 1840. In 1842 he was appointed to the territorial government council. Since Dewey belonged to the Democratic Party , he lost his offices in Grant County in 1846 when the Whig Party gained a majority in the area. In the meantime, Dewey had already started working as a lawyer and in the real estate business. He was also involved in the lead mines in Grant County. He gained a certain degree of notoriety in Wisconsin through his business activities.

Promotion to governor

After the dissolution of the territory and thus the conversion of the area into a regular federal state became apparent, the Democratic Party called a party congress to nominate a candidate for the gubernatorial elections. At the meeting there were two candidates, Hiram Barber and Morgan Lewis Martin , who split the delegates into two camps, with neither side getting a majority. For this reason it was finally agreed on Nelson Dewey as a compromise candidate. This then succeeded in winning the first gubernatorial election against the Whig candidate John Hubbard Tweedy .

Governor of wisconsin

Nelson Dewey took up his new office on June 7, 1848. After re-election in 1849, he was able to exercise it until January 5, 1852. In 1849, the terms of office of public officials, including the governor, were fixed at two years. Dewey's first assignment was overseeing the transition from the territory to a US state and the entry into force of the new constitution. He was also a staunch opponent of slavery and strongly opposed the expansion of this institution to new states or territories in the United States. Even then, Dewey campaigned for the direct election of US Senators - a proposal that was not implemented nationwide until 1913 with an amendment to the US Constitution. In 1851 Dewey declined to run again.

Another résumé

After his governorship ended, he served in the Wisconsin Senate between 1853 and 1857 . In 1863 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of lieutenant governor . Two attempts to return to the state senate also failed in 1869 and 1871. Between 1854 and 1865 he was a curator of the University of Wisconsin and from 1874 to 1881 he was a director of the state penitentiary in Waupun . Privately, Dewey became impoverished in the 1870s after obsessing over land speculation and railroad plans. In addition, his wife had left him and his property was caught in a fire. Together with his wife Catherine Dunn, Dewey had three children. He died impoverished in 1889.

Web links

• Nelson Dewey in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Wisconsin Historical Society (English)
• Nelson Dewey in the database of Find a Grave (English)