William S. Dean    

WILLIAM S. DEAN, farmer, post-office Sandy Lake, was born March 12, 1825, in Butler County, Penn. His parents, Aaron and Leah (Steal) Dean, were natives, the father of Maryland, and the mother of Huntingdon County, Penn. They came to Butler County about 1800, to Mercer County about 1837, and settled in Fairview Township, where the mother died in 1875, and the father in 1862. Their children were Hannah, married John Vogan; Ellen, married Aaron Dean; Jane, married John Allison; Jonathan, married Susan Wintz; Leah, married Martin Wintz; Polly, married Jacob Van Meter; William; Aaron, married Elizabeth McClam; Jacob, married Sarah Eckles; Isabella, married Benjamin Slater; Phoebe, married James Riley, and Nancy, married William Van Meter. The parents were Baptists, and the father a Republican. Our subject was educated in the common schools and brought up at rural pursuits. He began for himself by cleaning land by the acre at $9. He bought and paid for seventy-nine acres in that way, in Fairview Township. He was married March 27, 1849, to Mary Canon, of Lake Township. Her parents, Samuel and Nancy (McClure) Canon, had seven children: Mary; Margaret, married John McCoy; Nancy A., married Erastus Clark; LaFayette, deceased; Elmira, married Caleb Higbey; Elvina, married Riley Hosack; Fianes, married Elisha Bearce. Her mother is dead and her father lives at Stoneboro. Mr. Dean settled at marriage on his Fairview farm, which he sold in 1856 and bought 100 acres where he now lives. They lived for many years in a log house on this farm, and in 1878 a fine house which they had previously built was burned while they were in Franklin on business. This incurred a heavy loss, as everything was destroyed. With sorrowing hearts, but indomitable will, they set to work to rebuild, and now have a pleasant home. They have only one son, Edward W., who married Rebecca, a daughter of Samuel McClelland, by whom he has had three children: William C., married Nettie Cutchall; Cora A. and Charles M. Aside from his farming, Mr. Dean is engaged in selling choice nursery stock in Mercer County, from the well known Paynesville, Ohio, Nursery. He has served as school director and assessor. He and his wife believe in the doctrine of the Methodist Episcopal Church; he is a Prohibitionist and one of the honest, upright citizens of the country.

History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania : its past and present : including its aboriginal history, its early settlement and development, a description of its historic and interesting localities, sketches of its boroughs, townships and villages, neighborhood and family histories, portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc. : also, a condensed history of Pennsylvania. Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1888, pages 1048-1049.  Read this book on line - Free Trial  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.