Spartanburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 26: The Dean Family, 1900

Chapter 26: The Dean Family

In the list containing the names of heads of families in Spartanburg county, as shown by the original census returns of first census, taken in 1790, which we publish in this volume, we find but one name of the Dean family, being that of Joel Dean, Sr., from whom all the families of this name in said county have descended.

Joel Dean, born February i6th, 1755, emigrated from Virginia to North Carolina, and from there to South Carolina, settling on Enoree River in the territory afterwards embraced in Spartanburg county. He was a progressive farmer for his day and time and a highly respected citizen. He died February 5th, 1842, being 87 years of age. His wife was Mary Brockman, who was born January 7th, 1759, and died October 28tli, 1825, in the 67th year of her age. They were married September 5th, 1775, and to them were born twelve children, viz. :

Of these sons, John Dean, Esq., the eldest, was the father of Major Hosea J. Dean, who will receive further notice. One of the daughters, Casandra, married Sheriff

Alfred Dean, one of the sons mentioned, was born in Spartanburo; county. He resided at or near the old homestead place of his father ; was an honest and industrious farmer, and a member of the Baptist Church at Abner's Creek. He died at the age of 77 years. His wife was Jane Bobo, daughter of Absolem Bobo, who lived on Two-mile Creek, waters of Enoree. She was a daughter of a son of Allen Musgrove, who was the father of Mary Musgrove, the renowned heroine of Mr. Kennedy's novel, " Horseshoe Robinson." The children by this marriage were :

(4) Dr. Thomas Perry Dean, who died at the age of 27 years. Read medicine with his uncle, Dr. Alvin Dean, of Cobb county, Ga., and graduated at the Charleston (S. C.) Medical College. Married Mary, daughter of Joseph Davis, on South Pacolet (sister of Major John Bankston Davis), leaving one daughter, Lula, who is the wife of Rev. I. W. Wingo. Pie was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his life, when cut off, was one of promise and usefulness.

*John Miller, father of Sheriff Sam Miller, it will be remembered, was killed by the Indians and Tories during the Revolution. His wife, Margaret Miller, subsequently became the wife of James Jorden.

Captain Alvin H. Dean

one of the sons mentioned of Alfred and Jane (Bobo) Dean, was born in Spartanburg county in 1837. He was educated in the schools of his neighborhood, and attended the Davidson College, N, C, when General D. H. Hill was one of its faculty.

Soon after the outbreak of the civil war between the States he raised a company of cavalry for the service, which subsequently became Company E, 2d Regiment,

S. C. Cavalry. The first officers of this company besides Captain Dean were Dr. Wm. H. Coan, ist lieutenant; Crawford S. Thompson, 2d lieutenant; and John G. Wham, junior 2d lieutenant. The first mentioned of the lieutenants (Dr. Coan) failed in health, but Lieutenants Thompson a n d Wham were in the service of their country till the end of the war. This company, uniting with three others in the State, formed the cavalry battalion of Major W^ K. Easley, who was succeeded by Major Frank Hampton. During the seven days battles around Richmond, this battalion, doing service around Charleston, was ordered to Virginia. Upon going into camps near Richmond, it united with the cavalry of the Hampton Legion and two other cavalry companies, and organized the 2d S. C. Regiment of Cavalry, Colonel M. C. Butler commanding, which formed a part of the brigade of cavalry under General Wade Hampton, Division of J. E. B. Stuart.

Company E, 2d S. C. Cavalry, commanded by Captain Dean, participated in the closing scenes of seven days battles, Second Manassas, and all the engagements of the Maryland campaign, including Sharpsburg. The regiment participated also in the memorable cavalry combats of Culpepper Court-house, Brandy vStation and Stevensburg, Va.

In November, 1862, Captain Dean, on account of ill health, resigned, and was succeeded to the captaincy of Company E by his brother, First Lieutenant Geo. B. Dean. In 1864 the 2d S. C. Regiment of Cavalry was ordered back to South Carolina, where it encountered the enemy on James and Johns Islands. After the return of the regiment to South Carolina, Captain Dean, having recruited his health, was offered the position of major in the State troops, but having been re-elected a commissioned ofificer in his same old company, he accepted the latter position, which was an evidence of the high esteem in which he was held by the soldiers wdiom he at first had the honor to command. He continued to serve until the end of the war. participating in the battles of Fort Fisher, Anderson, Bentonville and other engagements.

Returning home after the war, Captain Dean has engaged for the most part in farming. He is at present Colonel of Spartanburg Regiment of United Confederate \'eterans, and is also a representative in the State Legislature from his native county.

In i860 he married Eugenia A. Miller, daughter of James A. Miller, whose wife's maiden name was Winnie Love, of Haywood county, N. C. She married first to a Mr. Moore (father of Dr. Alfred Moore of Welford, S. C). Captain and Mrs. Dean have five living children, viz. : James M., Kate A., Alvin H., A. Boyce, and present sheriff of Spartanburg county, was born October 20th, 1839. He was educated in the common schools of his neighborhood and attended for a time

Erskine College before the outbreak of the civil war. He suffered from a severe attack of pneumonia, and before he had sufficiently recovered he enlisted as a private in the Spartan Rifles and went to Sullivan's Island in April, 1861. After six weeks' service he returned home to recruit his health. In a few months afterwards his brother. Captain Alvin H. Dean, raising a company of cavalry, he enlisted in the same as a pri- vate. The company volunteered at first for State service only, and upon the reorganization for Confederate service he was elected first lieutenant.

In November, 1862, his brother resigning on account of ill health, he was made captain of the company, which position he held until the close of the war. This company was known as Company E, 2d S. C. Cavalry, commanded respectively by Colonels M. C. Butler and T. J. Lipscomb. The writer served the three last years of the war as a member of this company, and can testify to the faithful and arduous service rendered his country by Captain Dean and the men belonging to his command. In the great battle of Gettysburg, July, '63, Captain Dean had his horse shot from under him, and at the battle of Brandy Station, August ist of the same year, he was seriously wounded.

After the war Captain Dean resumed farming on the old homestead place of his grandfather, near Cashville, S. C. This he continued until 1874, when he removed to the Price (brick house) place on Tyger River. In 1881 he purchased land and made improvements near Spartanburg. Captain Dean while engaged in farming had the reputation of being among the foremost and most progressive in his county.

In 1890 he was elected to the State Legislature, receiving over four thousand votes, the highest total vote cast. In 1892 he w^as elected sheriff of Spartanburg county, and re-elected to the same position in 1896, which position he still holds, and it is needless to say that he has proven himself to be an able and efficient officer.

In 1864 Captain Dean married to Louisa, daughter of Madison Alexander. They have had six children : J. Madison, Geo. Thomas (deceased), Annie (wife of J. B. Liles), Edward, Alfred and Lewis.

Hon. Hosea J. Dean

In reviewing the lives of the public men of Spartanburg who figured prominently before the j)eople during the middle of the 19th century, there are none deserving of more special interest than Major Hosea J. Dean, the subject of this sketch, who was born July nth,

1806. His father, John Dean, Esq., was the son of Joel Dean, a soldier of the Revolution, and, as already stated, among the early settlers of Spartanburg District. His mother, Mary Farrow, was the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Farrow, a Revolutionary soldier belonging to the Continental line. She, it is said, was a lady remarkable for her beauty of person as for her noble qualities of mind and heart.

Major Dean, called Major from the fact that he at one time m his life held the office of brigade-major, was the only son of a family of thirteen children. The carefnl training of a pions parentage and the inflnence of a family of devoted sisters did mnch in the formation of his character, and made him, while yet a boy, remarkable for a certain dignified manliness of deportment which belonged to him thronghont his entire life. These were combined with the most delicate and assidnons care for his mother and sisters, which he always manifested.

Among the most prominent traits in his character were self-reliance, fortitude and truth. " But while the cultivation of the heart and the growth of every good and noble quality were most carefully fostered by his judicious parents, they were unable to give him the benefits of scholastic education. His labor was absolutely essential to the support of a family of thirteen children ; cheerfully and ungrudgingly he bestowed it, though his heart longed and sighed for knowledge!"

Through his great uncle, Samuel Farrow, a member of Congress from the Pinckney Congressional District, he received an appointment to West Point, but was prevented from accepting on account of an unexpected financial embarrassment of his father. He received his best instruction in the schoolroom from James Bostick, who once taught school in his father's neighborhood. This gentleman had been a merchant in London, but failing in business came to America and supported himself by teaching. The boy, listening attentively to his instructions, soon gained an education, including a knowledge of Greek, Latin and the higher mathematics, which, in after years, served him in the important positions which he filled. At the age of about twent)'-one he entered the law office of Colonel Patillo Farrow, at Laurens Court-house, S. C, where he devoted himself assiduously to the study of law, which for a time impaired his health. He was successful, however, and in May, 1828, was admitted to the practice, and at once entered into copartnership with Colonel Farrow, his preceptor, at Laurens Court-house. Eighteen months after this he returned to his native district and settled at Spartanburg Court-house, August, 1829, hoping by this change to improve the condition of his health. It was not long after this removal that, by constant and vigilant application to study and prompt and faithful attention to the business confided to him, he gained the good opinion, respect and confidence of all who knew him. He entered for a time into partnership with Henry C. Young, Esq., of Laurens ; but being elected by the State Legislature Commissioner of Equity for Spartanburg district, his partnership with Colonel Young was dissolved. He entered upon the duties of the office of Commissioner of Equity, was a model officer, equal to any in the State. This office he continued to hold, being reelected from time to time, until 1844, when he resigned and associated himself in the practice of law with James Edward Henry, and devoted himself to the duties of his profession until the death of the latter, which occurred in 1850, after which he continued alone in the practice of his profession with eminent ability imtil within one or two years of the time of his death, which took place at White Sulphur Springs, Va., August 3d, 1855, in the fiftieth year of his age. Notwithstanding his health had for a time been recuperated, yet in the last years of his life heart disease manifested itself, to which he was forced to succumb.

Major Dean was elected from Spartanburg District to a seat in the State Legislature in 1850, and again in 1852, and during this time showed himself to be an able and discreet politician and a popular and useful mem- ber. He served with eminent ability as a member of the Committee on Claims, and shortly after the commencement of his second term the office of Clerk of House of Representatives became vacant. He was put in nomination by his friends and was elected by a handsome majority. He immediately resigned his seat as a member of this body and entered upon the duties of his office, which for a number of years he filled with honor to himself and the State.

In our review of the progress of temperance during the nineteenth century, at another place in this volume, we have shown that Major Dean was among the first advocates for this cause in Spartanburg District. He " raised the temperance flag and headed the forlorn hope in the cause of reform." He was a prominent member of the order known as "Sons of Temperance," and was nearly always a delegate to the meetings and annual conventions of this body.

In 1830 Major Dean lost his pious mother, who, during her dying hours, so deeply impressed him with the truths of the Christian religion that he determined to seek the same. " For days and months and weeks he sought in secret until he found that ' which passeth all understanding,' " There being at this time no organization in the town of Spartanburg of the church of his choice, he, in 1832, imited with the Baptist Church of Mount Zion, of which Rev. John G. Landrum was pastor. Subsequently he participated in the organization of the Baptist Church at Spartanburg, of which he was made a deacon. The Sabbath-school of this church was " the object of his special care and attention," and the success of the present large and flourishing church, now known as the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, was largely due to his wise counsel and liberal support. His pastor always found in him a fast friend and liberal supporter, and for a quarter of a century his house was alwa^'s open to all good ministers of the gospel who called to partake of the open hospitality extended by him and his devoted wife.

In 1834 Major Dean married Elizabeth Ellen, secoijd daughter of Colonel John Mills, of Rutherford, N. C, a lady imiversally loved and respected, who died in 1838, leaving one son, John Mills Dean, who will receive further notice.

By this marriage there were six children, viz.: Edward J., who will receive further notice ; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Dr. C. E. Fleming; Mills, who will also receive further notice; St. Lawrence ; Hosea J., a resident in the city of Spartanburg, occupying the homestead residence of his parents, and Alice.

Major Dean was not only a lawyer of eminent legal attainments, but, as a citizen, was enterprising and public-spirited. Whatever promised to be the greatest good to the greatest number always found him liberal with his purse and prompt with his influence. His brill iant;career was one of honor and usefulness, and in his death Spartanburg mourned the death of one of her most valued citizens. His memory still lives.

Colonel John Mills Dean

Son of Hosea and Elizabeth (Mills) Dean, was born at Spartanburg C. H., S. C, August 25th, 1835, descended through both parents from English ancestry. At the age of twenty-one he graduated at the South Carolina Military Academy. Choosing civil engineering as his profession, he spent the winter ot 1855-56 as a member

"At the first call for volnnteers by the governor of Arkansas, he raised a company and went to Little Rock, where, in organizing, he was commissioned lieutenantcolonel of the 7th (Ark.) Regiment Infantry. The regiment at once went into active service in the Trans-Mississippi Department. . . . Taking part in all the important movements of General Hardee's command during 1861, and in the spring of 1862 we find the 7th Arkansas Regiment lying on their arms near Shiloh, April 5th, 1862. General Albert Sidney Johnston had concentrated his forces to give battle to the advancing Federal army under General Grant. Fighting began early Sunday morning the 6th, and the battle raged literally from sunrise to sunset. . . . The battle of Shiloh was one of the bloodiest in the annals of this continent, and was the first great field-fight of the war. It was the death-grapple of the Western men of the Western continent. . , . Between two fields a quarter of a mile apart, on a slight ridge of land covered by oaks and patches of brush, lies the historic spot that was made rich by the blood of hundreds of human beings. Passing through the woods and connecting these fields was an old unused road, washed down in places by the rains of scores of years ; it served the Federals as a miniature breastwork, and is known in their reports as ' The old washed-out road.' . . . Here . . . was posted a strong force of as hardy troops as ever fought, almost perfectly protected by the conformation of the ground, by logs and other hastily prepared defences. . . . Brigade after brigade was led against it. But valor was of no avail. Four times the position was charged. Four times the assault was imavailing. After hours of this slaughter, the enemy's left was turned and they were driven from the field and finally captured, two thousand surrendering at once.

"From six in the morning until late in the afternoon Colonel Dean's command was in the thickest of the fight. Leading an assault across 'The Sunken Road,' he fell about 5 p. m. Shot in the neck by a sharpshooter, he died instantly. One of his comrades wrote: 'The men faltered a little as they reached the road. So the colonel ran in front, cheering them on, waving his sword, and as he gave the command. Fire ! fell with his face to the foe.' General Hardee, in speaking to the mother of Colonel Dean, said : ' Madam, your son was a brave man. I sometimes thought in action he was almost foolhardy, but he was a brave soldier and knew no fear, only inspiration under fire. His promotion had been approved at headquarters, and the papers reached me after his death.' "*

Colonel Dean died unmarried in his twenty-seventh year. - A true Spartan hero - "a better soldier," said General Hardee, "never lived, a braver man never died."

Captain Edward Jefferson Dean

second son of Major H. J. Dean, was born in Spartanburg January, 1842. Was attending St. James College in Maryland when a call was made by the governor of South Carolina for volunteers. He returned home at once and joined one of the first companies raised, Company K (Spartan Rifles), Fifth Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, which left for Charleston April 13th, 1 861, and after the fall of Fort Sumter went to Vir- ginia. He was for one and a half years a corporal in Company K, when he obtained a transfer to the Twentysecond Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, and was elected captain of Company C of said regiment, which occupied the trenches at Petersburg at the time of the fearful mine explosion July 30, 1864. Colonel David G. Fleming, of the Twenty-second, was in command of the line that morning and he, with his adjutant and orderly, were buried under the mountain of earth. To this day they have never been found. Company C was dug out one by one by the enemy and made prisoners. Captain Dean, with other officers, was imprisoned at Fort Delaware, in the mouth of the Delaware River. Here for eleven months he was confined in miserable open quarters, exposed to the blazing sun of summer and the bitter cold of wiuter, and limited in the supply of water, food and coal. When released after the surrender of General Lee Captain Dean's health was a wreck. He settled on a plantation in Calhoun county, Ala., hoping to regain his health and strength, but after several years of suffering, he laid down a life sacrificed for his country. He died in 1883 and is buried at Talladega, Ala., in the churchyard of the Baptist church, of which he was a deacon. He was a gentleman of fine appearance, measuring six feet and five inches, erect and dignified ; was of a genial, generous temperament, attracting to himself strong friends wherever he lived.

Mills Dean, Esq

Twenty-second Regiment, Sonth Carolina Volnnteers. While on the front lines in Petersburg in 1864, digging trenches, cutting trees and throwing up embankments in the burning sun, the h.ealth of the slender college bov failed, and he was brought home to die by his faithful servant. After long weeks and months of illness he returned to his regiment and served with it until the surrender at Aj^pomattox.

In 1866 he entered the law ofhce of Fairthorne & Rand, in Philadelphia, where he remained several years as student and clerk. The writer, while attending his second course of medical lectures in that city in the winter of 1867-68, was intimately associated with him and can testify to the excellent and congenial traits in his character. He also shared his hospitable roof in Washington City in 1893, while seeking a government appointment which he secured, and learned to appreciate more his amiable and lovable qualities, his kindness of heart and noble traits of character, which he exemplified as long as he lived.

Soon after he finished his law course in Philadelphia he settled in Washington City and continued in the practice of law up to the time of his death. At his death many poor and distressed people in Washington came to take a last look at him, saying, " I have lost my best friend," He never said no! when help was needed. The order of the Sons of the Confederacy attended his fnneral in a body. He was one of the original members of this organization in Washington, and also the Sons of the Revolution. He was a man whom his friends loved.

The Woodruff Family

Thomas Woodruff, son of Joseph and Annie (Linsey) Woodruff, came to Spartanburg District from the Yadkin Valley, N. C, after the Revolution. He married Mary Patillo Harrison, a daughter of Dr. Richard Harrison, one of the early county court judges for Spartanburg. His children were Harrison Patillo, Charles Pinckney, Richard, James ]\Ionroe, Andrew Barrv, Martha Mariah, Julia Ann, and two children died in infancy.

Of these children, Harrison P. W^oodruff married Sarah McHugh ; Dr. Charles P. W^oodruff married Eliza Julia Ann Todd ; Rev. Richard Woodruff married Elizabeth J. Foster ; James M. W^oodruff married a Miss Eockhart ; Captain A. B. Woodruff married Maria Louisa Todd, sister to the wife of Dr. W^oodruff ; Martha Maria Woodruff married Stephen Grififith, father of Professor H. P. Griffith of Limestone College, and Julia Ann married Dr. Benjamin W'offord.

These families have always occupied positions of the highest respectability and have ranked among the foremost in the communities in which they lived. The present town of Woodruff, S. C, takes its name from Thomas Woodruff, the first settler at that place, and has

Among the prominent citizens and physicians of this town was Dr. Charles P. Woodruff, well known to many of the older citizens of Spartanburg county. He was born at Woodruff February 8th, 1808, and died April 27th, 1887, in his eightieth year. He graduated at the Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1831. He had an extensive scope of practice, and was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and influence among the people of his neighborhood. He was a member of the Bethel Baptist church and led a consistent Christian life.

Rev. Richard W^oodruft' was ordained a minister of the gospel in early life and devoted the remainder of his life to the advancement of the Saviour's kingdom. He supplied during his ministry, covering a period of about fifty years, a number of churches in Spartanburg county, and expounded the word with zeal and correctness. During the civil war he served in defense of his country and acted for a time as chaplain of the Fifth Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers.

Throughout his entire ministerial career he retained many peculiarities of an eventful life. He was a man of w^arm heart and deep, earnest piety, and says another : " But for constitutional eccentricities of disposition would have been a wadely useful man." His grandmother, the wife of Dr. Richard Harrison, became a widow and subsequently married Captain Thomas Farrow, a soldier of the Revolution. His wife was a sister to Dr. Iry Foster, an eminent physician who removed from Spartanburg district to Alabama, many years before the outbreak of the civil war, and who participated in the Florida war and was wounded.

was born at Woodruff, S. C, February 25th, 1825. His educational advantages were limited. One of his instructors was Wm. Jones, who taught about one mile east of Woodruff. He also attended for a time the school of his sister Martha, and then that of her future husband, Stephen Griffith. His parents, considering him too delicate to go to school or work on the farm, secured a situation for him in a store as clerk, of which his brother. Dr. Woodruff, was a partner. He remained with this firm for several years, during which time he married Miss Maria Todd, a lady of intelligence and refinement, who was a daughter of Dr. John and Mrs. Eliza J. Todd, of Laurens county, S. C.

In 1842 he connected himself with Bethel (Baptist) Church and was some years afterwards ordained as one of its deacons and has held every office in the church, being clerk of the same for thirty-two years. He has been nearly always a delegate from his church to the Old Tyger River and Spartanburg Associations, and was for a long number of years the clerk of these bodies, having succeeded C. J. Elford as clerk of the Tyger River immediately after the close of the civil war. He was also for several years assistant clerk of the State (S. C.) Baptist Convention. He was postmaster and a magistrate at Woodruff before the civil war. These offices would have exempted him from any service in the army, perhaps, during the entire war ; but in January, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Holcombe Legion, and upon the reorganization of said company in May of the same year he was elected its captain and held this office to the end of the war. During this time he was in twelve different engagements, according to his estimate, and wounded at the Second Manassas battle. At the battle of Five Forks, Va., his company formed a part of a detachment under General W. H. Wallace, which was overwhelmed by a Federal flank movement and was captured. He, with other Confederate officers, was taken to Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie. He states that this was a great grief to him, as he loved the battle and was willing at any time to risk the danger of losing his life.

In the absence of the field-officers of the Holcombe Legion, he was for a considerable time in command of that regiment, and by General Bushrod Johnson, who commanded the division to which the Holcombe Legion belonged, he was tendered the position of major of his regiment, but for honorable reasons he declined it. Major Zeigler, who held the commission of major of the

Holcombe Legion, had been captured and was held as a hostage by the enemy, being in close confinement. He and Captain Woodruff were close friends, and the latter, out of a tender sympathy for his suffering and painful suspense, refused to be promoted over him.

Captain Woodruff, after his return home from imprisonment, accepted the situation and went to work in earnest to bring about a peaceful restoration of the chaotic conditions which confronted him. Under the then existing dominant party controlling the affairs of the State of South Carolina he was elected as a Democrat to the State Legislature in 1865 and in 1868. While a member of this body he introduced a bill, which passed, forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors, either with or without license, within three miles of churches and schoolhouses outside of municipalities, which law has never been changed. He was again elected to the State Legislature in 1874 and served for one term. He held also, for a number of years after the close of the civil war, the position of trial justice with efficiency and to the satisfaction of the people.

Captain Woodruff, however, has rendered inestimable service to his church and denomination, not only in the conventions and associations, but also as a trustee of Cooper Limestone Institute and Furman University.

For a long number of years he presided as superintendent over a large Sunday-school in his church, and was at one time secretary of the State Sunday-school Convention. Says another of him : "Wherever in our county and State there is good to be done and sacrifice of time and money to be made, there we may expect to find A. B. Woodruff. Quiet, self-sacrificing, patient, liopeful, earnest, he toils on, sustained by a lofty faith and cheered by the approval of an enlightened conscience."