Sutter County
Biographies
CAPT. THOMAS DEAN
Born in Virginia, December 17, 1831, Capt. Thomas Dean spent most of his boyhood days on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In 1849 he crossed the plains with an ox-team, being four months on the road, and located in the mining towns of Hangtown and Drytown. In the fall of 1850 he came to Marysville and conducted a livery stable for a while, later moving to Sutter County and locating at the place now owned by his son, Edward Dean, where he engaged in the dairy business. He served as lieutenant in the 1st California Cavalry, at first known as the Butte Mountain Rangers, during the Civil War, and also served as captain of the Home Guards of Sutter County; and ever after that he was known as Captain Dean. He was a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and also of the Pioneer Society. Captain Dean was the leader of the company organized in Sutter County during the Civil War, and led his company in the memorable climb up South Butte, upon whose summit they planted an immense flag-pole, a part of which is still in existence. An account of the planting of this flagstaff, and of the accompanying flag-raising, is given in the sketch of his son-in-law, E. A. Noyes, which will be found elsewhere in this volume.
Thomas Dean was married in 1853 to Miss Hannah Hyndman, of Jefferson County, Ohio. Nine children resulted from this fortunate union, namely: Isabella, the wife of E. A. Noyes; Ella, now Mrs. J. K. Prime, who lives retired at Sites, in Colusa County; Ann, the wife of J. D. Stewart, a farmer near Live Oak; Thomas, who became a farmer at Sutter and who died at the age of fifty-four, leaving a widow and two sons, Ray and Earl; Mary, who died unmarried at about twenty-two years of age; Lizzie, who is now the widow of F. W. Strang, and resides in Oakland; Edward, whose biography also appears elsewhere in this work; Laura, who died at the age of fourteen, in 1884; and Gertrude, the baby, who died in 1878, being then three years of age.
Captain Dean was a strong abolitionist and Republican, and was a great admirer of Lincoln; and although a Virginian, he was a stanch supporter of the Emancipation Proclamation. Ardently patriotic, and an excellent horseman, he always kept young saddle-horses in training for cavalry service, and even in the last years of his life was ever ready to join the cavalry, should this country again need his services. He died at his home farm at Sutter, July 9, 1905, being then past seventy-three years old. He was survived by his wife, who passed away in 1915 at the age of eighty-four. Their names occupy a worthy place in the annals of the pioneer history of Sutter County.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 322-323