Nelson Webster Dewey (December 19, 1813 – July 21, 1889) was an American lawyer, land speculator, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer.

[1] He left Bowne in May 1836, and in June of that year arrived in the lead-mining region of Galena, Illinois,[1] working as a clerk for Daniels, Dennison & Co.,[note 2] a firm of land speculators from New York.

[6] 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.

[2][7] When Daniels, Dennison & Co.'s business plans collapsed in 1838, after Madison was chosen to be the capital,[2] Dewey moved to Lancaster, Wisconsin, where he was admitted to the bar in an examination held by Charles Dunn, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Wisconsin Territory; he was appointed district attorney of Grant County that same year.

[2] 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.

[2][4][8] The party also hoped that Dewey might attract voters from the then-Whig majority Grant County.

[2] The election was held on May 8, 1848;[9] Dewey defeated Whig candidate John Hubbard Tweedy and the independent Charles Durkee, and thus became the first governor of the State of Wisconsin.

[2] He encouraged the development of the state's infrastructure, particularly the construction of new roads, railroads, canals, and harbors, as well as the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.

[8] During Dewey's first term as governor, the Wisconsin Legislature passed an act decreeing that the biennial elections for governor would begin in 1849; that year, in an election held in November, Dewey again defeated the Whig candidate, Alexander Collins, and the Free Soiler Warren Chase.

In 1854, Dewey and his wife Catherine began to plan to begin anew the development of Cassville, once the goal of Daniels, Dennison & Co.[2] 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,[2] at a cost of $15,000;[1] his ultimate hope was that Cassville would be developed into a large city.

[8] He also acquired about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land northwest of Cassville, on which he built a three-story Gothic-revival mansion, which he named "Stonefield",[2] at a cost of about $70,000; he expended another $30,000 on eleven miles (18 km) of stone fence.

[1] In 1863, Dewey unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor; he also lost his 1869 and 1871 attempts at re-election to State Senate.

[2][4] Dewey's Cassville project was attracting few people, so he began investing in a railroad line to the village.

[2] 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.

[1] He died in poverty[8] at the Denniston House, which he had helped rebuild,[2] a few minutes past midnight on the morning of July 21, 1889,[note 4][1][12] after being unconscious for the previous forty-eight hours.

[8] Dewey was buried on July 23, 1889, in the Episcopal cemetery in Lancaster,[1] next to the graves of his brother Orin and his son Charlie.