Territorial Politics
On March 4, 1837, Dewey was elected Register of Deeds for the newly formed Grant County, Wisconsin; he was appointed the county's Justice of the Peace by Governor Henry Dodge the same year. He was, and continued to be for the rest of his political career, a member of the Democratic Party. When Daniels, Dennison & Co.'s business plans collapsed in 1838, after Madison was chosen to be the capital, 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 Wisconsin Territory; he was appointed district attorney of Grant County that same year. As a lawyer, he entered into a partnership with J. Allen Barber, which lasted from 1840 until May 1848. Together, they became well known in Wisconsin's lead-mining region, acquiring mines and investing in mining companies.
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. 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.
Read more about this topic: Nelson Dewey
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