G. DeWitt Elwood

Gasharee DeWitt Elwood (May 23, 1818 – March 31, 1868) was an American educator, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 29th Senate district during the 1865 and 1866 legislative sessions. In historical documents, his last name is sometimes spelled Ellwood. His given names were generally always abbreviated as or

Biography G. DeWitt Elwood was born May 23, 1818, at Minden, New York. His father died when he was only about two years old. He was raised working on the family farm with his mother and siblings, attended the common schools, and when he was able began earning money as a teacher.

He used his earnings to pay for his admission to the Cazenovia Seminary and Fairfield Academy, but had to quit before his final year due to severe inflammation in his eyes. Instead he returned to work as a teacher, supplementing his income as a farm laborer.

In 1860, Elwood, as register of deeds of Green Lake County, found himself at the center of a legal battle over the status of the nearby town and city of Ripon. An 1859 act of the legislature had proposed detaching Ripon from Fond du Lac County and attaching it instead to Green Lake County, and proposed a referendum in Fond du Lac to approve the change. The referendum was tainted by inconsistent ballot language around the county, and both sides claimed victory. In the immediate aftermath, Elwood received an application to record a deed which was located in Ripon and he refused on the grounds that it was not part of Green Lake County. He was sued by the property owner, Benjamin Spaulding, in a case that rose to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and was argued by some of the leading attorneys in the state. For Spaulding, former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices Samuel Crawford and Abram D. Smith, and future congressman Edward S. Bragg. For Elwood, future chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Edward George Ryan. Elwood was well respected by his colleagues, and after the 1865 session was given the important role of implementing the controversial sale and settlement of swamp lands granted to the state by the federal government. The federal government had allowed states to reclaim this land by an 1850 act of congress, but in Wisconsin the situation had languished due to controversy over how to fairly claim and dispose of the lands and how to distribute the proceeds. Through his influence, half the state proceeds from the swamp lands were allocated to a new "normal school fund" which funded several of the "normal schools" around the state which much later would become campuses of the University of Wisconsin.

Elwood suffered his entire life from asthma, in 1868 this condition was exacerbated by tuberculosis. He died of the disease at his home in St. Marie on March 31, 1868.

Personal life and family G. DeWitt Elwood was the fourth of five children born to Richard P. Elwood and his wife Elisabeth ( Van Camp). Elwood's ancestry was a mix of English, German, French, and Swiss.

G. DeWitt Elwood married Sarah Jeannette DeForest in July 1849. They had four children together, though two died in childhood.