The Shotwell Collection, 1823-1836; 1842-1888; Cadiz, Ohio

Collection Summary

Creator:	Dewey, Chauncey
Title:	The Shotwell Collection, 1823-1836; 1842-1888; Cadiz, Ohio
Accession:	MSS 98-6
Description:	2 items
Location:	SC - Oversized
Photograph Collection:	View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content:	1 objects
Use Restrictions:	There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

This collection contains a bound lawyer's docket book with entries from 1823 to 1836 and from 1842 to 1888, both indexed. The earliest entries are likely from the law office of Chauncey Dewey in Cadiz, Ohio during his association with Steubenville lawyer Benjamin Tappan. The later entries are first from the law office of Dewey & Shotwell, a partnership between Chauncey Dewey and Stuart B. Shotwell, also in Cadiz. Dewey retired from the partnership in 1849, so entries after that date are from the law office of Stuart B. Shotwell in Cadiz. Most entries give the case name, list of case actions, and receipts of payments. Also included in this collection is a tin sign reading "Shotwell's Law Office."

Biographical & Historical Information

Lawyer and financier Chauncey Dewey was born on March 27, 1796 in Norwich, Connecticut. He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York and graduated in 1820. After college Dewey moved to Cadiz, Ohio and studied law under General W.B. Beebe. After his admission to the Ohio bar, Dewey formed a partnership with Steubenville lawyer and future Ohio Senator Benjamin Tappan under the firm of Tappan & Dewey. In 1836, Dewey formed a new partnership in Cadiz with Edwin M. Stanton, future Secretary of War from 1862 to 1868 under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. That partnership dissolved in 1842, and that year Dewey formed a new partnership with Stuart B. Shotwell under the firm Dewey & Shotwell of Cadiz. Dewey retired from the law practice in 1849 and became a leader in Cadiz’s growing banking industry. In 1849 he was elected president of the Harrison Branch of the State Bank of Ohio and remained its president when it converted to the Harrison National Bank of Cadiz in 1865. He was a director of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, & St. Louis Railroad. In 1823 he married Nancy Pritchard, and the couple had ten children. Dewey died in Cadiz on February 15, 1880.

Stuart B. Shotwell was born in 1819 in Washington Township, Harrison County, Ohio. He attended Franklin College beginning in 1836, and after graduating he studied law in Cadiz in the law office of Dewey & Stanton. In 1842 he was admitted to the Ohio state bar, and the same year he joined Dewey in a new partnership of Dewey & Shotwell after the departure of Edwin Stanton. Shotwell carried on the business under his own name after the retirement of Dewey in 1849. In 1851, Shotwell married Nancy Gaston. The couple had five children, including Walter Gaston Shotwell (b. 1856), a lawyer who trained in his father’s firm and later opened his own practice in Cadiz where this collection was likely stored at one time. Stuart B. Shotwell died in Cadiz on December 3, 1890.

Acquisition Information

Date Received	1998
Donor Information	This collection was purchased from Bookseller, Inc. in Akron Ohio in February 1998.

Content List

1 Legal Record Book
1 Tin Sign

Associated People

Walter Shotwell

Stuart B. Shotwell

Chauncey Dewey

Use Policy

Access	There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions	There are no restrictions.
Preferred Citation
	Unless otherwise stated, digital materials in our collections are available for use under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 License (CC-BY-4.0). For Use and Citation guidelines, see Special Collections Use Policy.