Henry Chapin Jewell was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in December 1811. As an infant, he moved with his parents to Lyons, New York. In 1821, his father died, and he moved with his widowed mother back to Chapinville, Connecticut. As a young man, he went to work as a merchant in Hartford, Connecticut, and went west to the Wisconsin Territory in 1843. He settled a farm in what is now Green Lake County, remaining there for five years. While residing there, he surveyed some of the first roads in that area and built the first schoolhouse.[1] During his years there, the area was still part of Marquette County, and Jewell was elected the first register of deeds of Marquette and was the second postmaster in the county.[2]
In 1848, he moved with his younger brother, Graham, to the village of Algoma, which later became part of the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He went into business with his brother, opening one of the first merchant businesses in what is now Oshkosh. They then became involved in the lumber business, which was flourishing in the region. In 1849, a post office was established in Algoma, and Henry Jewell was appointed the first postmaster there.[2]
He quickly became active in public affairs in Oshkosh. He was elected to the Winnebago County board of supervisors in 1853 as a representative of the town of Algoma. In 1856, the village of Algoma was annexed into the city of Oshkosh, that year Jewell was elected to the city council and went on to serve seven consecutive terms. During his service on the city council, he was also elected, in 1858, to represent the 5th ward of Oshkosh on the county board. In 1862, he left the city council when he was elected mayor of Oshkosh for a one-year term.[2] During the American Civil War, Jewell associated with the National Union Party. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1866 in Winnebago County's 1st Assembly district, running on the National Union ticket.[3]
Jewell remained a member of the Republican Party after the Civil War, and was returned to the city council and county board in 1870. He ran for Assembly again in 1872, but lost the general election to lumberman Thomas Wall.[4] He remained on the county board until 1878, and was elected chairman of the county board in 1876 and 1877.[2] He was defeated seeking a ninth consecutive term on the county board in 1878.[5]
Jewell returned to the county board in 1882 and 1883, but largely retired from public life after that term. He died of a stroke at his home in the West Algoma neighborhood of Oshkosh on January 1, 1889.[6]
Personal life and family
Henry Jewell was the eldest of five children born to Ezra and Mary (née Chapin) Jewell. The Jewell family were descended from Nathaniel Jewell, who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1699.[1] Henry's younger brother, Graham, was a business partner in their early years in Wisconsin, but he died in 1851 at age 31.
On October 1, 1833, Henry Jewell married Mary Ann Russell, of Litchfield, Connecticut. They had at seven children together, though their first two children died young and three others died in infancy. Their eldest surviving daughter, Mary Eleanor, went on to marry Edgar P. Sawyer, the eldest son of U.S. senator Philetus Sawyer.[1]
