Joseph Newton Dean, a son of Joseph and Hannah Boggs Dean, was born August 22, 1844, near Xenia (Greene County) Ohio. As a teenager, he enlisted as a drummer in Co. B of the 40th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regm't. at Camp Chase (Franklin County), Ohio on September 10, 1861. Along with a close friend, Johnny Crawford, he fought under Gen. (later President) James Garfield at the Battle of Prestonburg, KY, and participated in many other engagements including Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, the siege of Atlanta, Kennesaw Mtn., Franklin, Tenn., Jonesborough and Lovejoy Station. In combat at Chickamauga, his unit distinguished itself by capturing several Confederate cannon. After Kennesaw Mountain, Ga., on June 20, 1864, Joseph had to bury his fallen friend and to notify Crawford's Ohio family of his death. Of Irish Covenanter Presbyterian stock, Dean's ancestor, Daniel Dean (b. Ulster, 10-20-1766) had migrated from Tobermore, Ulster, Northern Ireland, to Philadelphia in 1784. After 1790, his mother, Mary Campbell Dean, wife of Sgt. George Roger Dean (Pennsylvania Colonial Line), joined Daniel, and the Deans relocated to Virginia's Tidewater after Daniel had wed Jennett Steele of Augusta Co. VA. The Deans, including Daniel's sister Mary, settled first at Mount Sterling, Ky. where Dean cut timber and operated a mill. Always avid abolitionists, the Deans in 1812 'voted with their feet' by relocating north with family friend Henry Barnes, across the Ohio River to Greene County, Ohio. There, they operated a 2,000-acre farm on Caesar's Creek near Xenia. After Joseph's Ohio Volunteers unit mustered out at Nashville in 1864, he graduated from Iron City Commercial College, Pittsburgh, PA, and graduated later from Cincinnati Law School. On July 16, 1867, Joseph wed Lydia Cleaver, a Mayflower descendant of Pilgrim George Soule. Dean became a prominent attorney and probate judge. The couple had a son, Walter Parry Dean, who attended Grant University (now UT-Chattanooga) and became a lawyer. A decade after Lydia had died at age 30 in 1877, Joseph remarried teacher Mary Gaumer of Adamsville, Ohio, in 1888. W.P. Dean had sons Walt and Joseph Edward, and daughters who later became Mrs. Dorothy Webb and Mrs. Katherine Stewart. J. E. and his Arkansas-born wife, Nola Beard, lived in Cincinnati after 1932 -- then in Rose City (North Little Rock), Ark. where they operated the Blue Bird Tourist Court during World War II. The Deans had a daughter, Joana Jo Dean in 1933, and a son, Walter Jeryl (Jerry) Dean, in 1945 when they moved to Little Rock. I now have grown sons, David, 37, a Tulsa, OK history teacher, and Daniel, 34, a Fayetteville, Ark. architect. With my wife Regina, I have daughters Megan, b. 3-3-1992, and Amanda, b. 5-12-1994. My maternal grandfather, Foster Ignitious Freeman, fought for the 10th Alabama, Wilcox's Brigade, CSA in the Peninsula Campaign. He was among Confederates surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865 after which he returned to farm in Alabama, Tennessee, and publish Arkansas newspapers.

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Edwin was KIA at Chickamauga.