Early Life
Nelson Dewey was born in Lebanon, Connecticut on December 19, 1813 to Ebenezer and Lucy (née Webster) Dewey. His father's family had lived in New England since 1633, when their ancestor, Thomas Due, came to America from Kent County, England.
His family moved to Butternuts, New York (now called Morris) the following year and he attended school there and in Louisville, New York; at the age of sixteen, he began attending the Hamilton Academy in Hamilton, New York. He attended the academy for three years, and then returned to Butternut to teach.
Ebenezer Dewey was a lawyer, and wished for his son to join the same profession. Dewey began studying law in 1833, first with his father, then with the law firm Hanen & Davies, then with Samuel S. Bowne in Cooperstown, New York. He left Bowne in May 1836, and on June 19 of that year, he arrived in the lead-mining region of Galena, Illinois, working as a clerk for Daniels, Dennison & Co., a firm of land speculators from New York. About a week later, he moved to Cassville, Wisconsin. He became a citizen of the territory in 1836. 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 Wisconsin Territory or of a future state.
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