Dewey, Seneca B.

DEWEY, MILLER SMOUSE

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 10/7/2020 at 15:17:58

Seneca B. Dewey, the leading jeweler of Washington, and a portrait of whom appears on the opposite page, is a native of Washington County, and was born in Brighton, Dec. 16, 1853. He is the son of Ralph and Lucinda (Miller) Dewey, both of whom are natives of Ohio, but who emigrated to Washington County in an early day. (See sketch of Ralph Dewey.) The subject of this sketch was reared in his native county and educated in the High School of Washington. After leaving school in 1870, he went to Ohio and worked there on a dairy farm one year, and then went to Albia, Monroe Co., Iowa, and for one year was engaged with his brother as clerk in his hat store. He then taught school one term. In 1874, when he reached his majority, he entered the jewelry store of D. Hess, at Washington, to learn the trade of jeweler. After serving for three years, he purchased the stock of his employer and has since conducted his business. He carries one of the finest stocks, in his line of trade, of any similar house in this section of the State, including watches, clocks, jewelry, silver-plated ware and spectacles.

Our subject first commenced business on the southeast corner of the square, in 1878, from which place he moved to the south side. In 1882, he purchased his present site on the west side, on which was a frame building in which he moved. This building, with his stock, was burned in the big fire of 1883, when he immediately commenced the erection of his present brick structure, valued at $6,500. In this he moved after fitting the storeroom up in a most handsome manner. Mr. Dewey is a practical jeweler, one who thoroughly understands his business, and has built up a very substantial trade, which is constantly on the increase. In addition to this mercantile trade, he is the owner of a fine farm of 160 acres in Franklin Township, known as the Cedar Stock Farm, where he has bred some fine roadsters, but is now engaged in breeding Norman and Clydesdale stock. He has fifteen head of fine mares, and a roadster, a nephew to Maud S., which bids fair to make his mark.

Mr. Dewey was married, Jan. 12, 1882, in Washington, Iowa, to Norma Smouse, a daughter of H.D. Smouse, a retired merchant of this city. By this union there have been two children, one dying in infancy. The living one is Arthur Claire. In politics, Mr. Dewey is a Republican, and, while holding no political office, he keeps himself posted in the affairs of the county. As yet comparatively a young man, he has made a success in business of which he may well be proud, and is numbered among the well-to-do business men of Washington. He is enterprising in all things, and is ever ready to lend a helping hand to every enterprise calculated to build up the city in which he resides, and the county in which he was born.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of Seneca B. Dewey, page 381. Portrait on page 380.