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Sarah A. (Stewart) Dean (1766 - 1860)

Sarah A. Dean formerly Stewart
Born in Thompsontown, Juniata, Pennsylvaniamap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married before 1790 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at age 94 in Greenfield, Highland, Ohio, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 23 Dec 2014
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Biography

The Dean Book, by John Erwin Dean gives her birth date as January 24, not 2nd.

Assuming she is the daughter of William Stewart (and I have found the correct William Stewart, both big assumptions, see below), then we can piece together her childhood through the (probable) mentions of her father:

1778: Two William Stewarts (one Stewart, one Stuart) are listed in Fermanagh Township, which is near Mifflintown, PA. The William Stuart has 148 acres of land, 2 horses, 4 cows, 2 sheep. The William Stewart has 48 acres of lands, 2 horses, 3 cows.[1]

1780: Two William Stewarts again in Fermanagh Township. This time they are listed as "junior" and "senior". William Stewart Senior has 3 horses, 6 cows, and 250 acres of land. William Stewart Junior has 3 horses, 6 cows, and 156 acres of land. Not sure which one is Sarah's father, although I'd assume William Senior.

1798: Fermanagh Township, Mifflin County has a record for a "Widow William Stewart" (at least, that's what ancestry.com says it says, but I can't read it), living in Farmanagh Township[2]. Since Abraham Dean laid claim to some land in Mifflin County in 1794, which I speculate was his wife's inheritance, Sarah's father might well have been dead by this time. However, this same year there's a William Stewart listed living next to next to John Wilson with a house of dimensions 22 by 24, 2 stories, 3 windows, 12 lights, built of logs. In "the third appraisement division of the seventh district" in Mifflin County, PA. This could be a brother.[3]. However, to further confuse matters, there is also a William Stewart on the tax list in Baree Township that year, which is where Abraham Dean is living, so that is also a likely brother in law[4] I do not know if it a brother of hers who owned land in both Mifflin and Huntingdon County would show up on both. Presumably, he would, but Abraham Dean doesn't seem to show up on the Fermanagh township tax rolls.

She married Abraham Dean by 1790, when he is listed in the census as having a family. He was listed as a single freeman in 1786, so they must have married between those dates[5]

1790 U.S. Census: The family is documented in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in the 1790 U.S. Census (before John's birth). Abraham is listed next to his father, James. Abraham is listed as having a household of 1 free white males older than 16, 2 free white male younger than 16 (not sure who these would be, since the known children were not yet born), and 2 free white females (Sarah and another unknown woman or child)[6]

Feb 25, 1794: Abraham claimed 400 acres in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania[7]

May 15, 1794: Abraham claimed 400 acres in Mifflin County. Sarah was supposed to have been born in Mifflin, so perhaps this is related to her inheritance? It's also possible it was a different Abraham Dean[8]

1798: Abraham is listed in the U.S. Direct Tax Lists for Huntingdon and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Occupant #14, Abraham Dean, in Baree (it's a township in Huntingdon Co.), "on head waters of Shavers and Stone Creek's", 395 Acres, 69 Perches, value of 400 (dollars, presumably). Occupant #15 is Robert Dean, with the exact same location (but only 393 acres, 33 perches), and occupant #16 is James Dean, same location, with 422 acres, 112 perches. The value of land is the same for all three. Other Deans on the same list (but just listed as in Huntingdon) are Robert, Alexander, and James Lee(? Could actually say John or even Michael, hard to say).[9]


Between 1798 and 1799, the family moves to Ross County, Ohio. Daughter Margery is born March 27, 1799, and always lists her birthplace as Ohio.


1800: I can't find the family in the 1800 U.S. Census in Pennsylvania. There is an Abraham Dean in Ohio County, Kentucky. He's on the 1800 tax list, but also a number later records from the 1830s. That may be a different person, or may suggest the 1800 Abraham Dean is a different person from this Abraham Dean.

October 31, 1802: Abraham and Sarah Dean are admitted to the Buckskin Church, in Ross County, Ohio, along with a number of apparent relatives, including Wilsons and Crawfords. The session included Rev. Sam'l Ralston and the elders John McConnell, David Edmiston, John Edwards, and Abraham Dean. The people admitted were: Elizabeth McGinnis, Robert Bredon and his wife Elisabeth, Robert Hollyday and his wife Isabella, Margaret Young, Susanna Hollyday, Samuel Davies and his wife Elizabeth, Hanna Wallace, William McConnell, Margaret McConnell, Elisabeth McConnell, Hanna McConnell, Benjamin Blair and his wife Elisabeth, Sarah Dean, Robert Young, Elisabeth Edminston, John Wilson, Elisabeth Edmiston, Robert Edmiston, Betsey Edmiston, Margaret Edwards, and John Wallace. Noble Crawford and his wife Mary spoke with the session but were denied admittance because their first child was born too soon after their marriage, which had led to them being denied admittance in Harts Log Church. However, Mr. Ralston agreed to baptize their children.[10]

1806: Abraham Dean appears on the tax list for Ross County, Ohio. This is the year of his death, according to his tombstone[11]

1807-1818 There is no census for Ohio in 1810, but Sarah Dean is listed on the tax list for Buckskin township in that year, as well as in 1807, 1808,1809,, 1817, and 1818[12]

April 2, 1817: Sarah Dean is censured along with her son, James Dean, and James Wilson (who is an elder member of the church, so perhaps the father of Sarah's daughter's husband?) for travelling on the sabbath after they were stopped from returning from Chillicothe with their waggons on a Friday due to high waters.[13]

1820 U.S. Census for Buckskin township, Ross County, Ohio[14]. Sarah Dean is listed next to James and John Dean, presumably both her sons. Her household consists of one woman 16-26, and one woman 26-45. Is this the wrong Sarah, or did they get the numbers wrong?

She is not immediately obvious in the census records of 1830, 1840, or 1850. In 1830, John and James Dean have households in Buckskin Township, Ross County, Ohio. Sarah would have been 64 (more or less) during that census. Neither of her sons has a woman of that age in their household. The only one of her daughters I could find (Mary Dean Garrett) also did not have a woman of that age in her household. Sarah could have been outside of Ross County at that time, or she could have been staying with a grandchild.

In 1840, John and James Dean, again, are in Buckskin Township, Ross County, Ohio. Again, there is no woman in their households old enough to be their mother. Again, I can't find her daughters.

In 1850, the only Sarah Dean who appears in Ross County, Ohio, is her 15-year old granddaughter, the daughter of James.[15] I can't find any evidence of her elsewhere, either.

She occurs in TWO census records in 1860:

'1860 U.S. Census for Madison Township, Highland, Ohio, which was taken June 28, 1860'[16]. Household of Margara (sp.) D. Wilson
Margara D. Wilson, 60, Ohio, Farmer
Samuel Wilson, 25, Ohio
Cyrus Wilson, 20, Ohio
Louisa Lord, 9, Ohio
Sarah Dean, 94, Pennsylvania


1860 U.S. Census for South Salem, Ross County, Ohio, which was taken on August 3, 1860[17]:
James Dean, 67, Farmer, $15,000 real estate, $200 personal estate, Pennsylvania
Eliza Dean, 64, Kentucky
Rebecca J. Dean, 21, Ohio, attended school in last year
Sarah Dean, 94, Pennsylvania


There is confusion over who was Sarah Stewart's father. There are two candidates:

Candidate #1) From p.172 of "In the Footprints of the Pioneers of Stephenson County, Illinois" (1900), in a description of the Wilson family of South Carolina, Sarah Stewart's father is reported as Captain John Stewart:

"January 23, 1817, he [Adam Baird Wilson] married Marjorie Dean, born November 27, 1799, in Pike county, Ohio, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Stewart) Dean of Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, John Stewart, coming from Scotland to this country previous to the Revolutionary war, in which he served as a captain in a Pennsylvania regiment."

There is a record of a Captain John Stewart who led the 2nd Company of the 1780 3rd Battalion, under Lt. Col. Samuel Irvine. They were out of Middleton (South) Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/revolutionary_war_militia_overview/4125/cumberland_co__revolutionary_war_militia/435888

A Captain John Stewart is also mentioned in "History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania" (1886) as owning land in the area of what is today Harrisburg. p. 275

The center of South Middleton Township today is about 30 miles as the crow flies from Thompsontown, and a little farther from Mifflin. Harrisburg is somewhat closer to Mifflin, but around 60 miles from Alexandria, where the Dean family was located.


Candidate #2) William Stewart From "History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania..."Edited by F. Ellis and A. N. Hungerford. Published in Philadelphia by Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886, Pages 865-874.

"The following sketches are of a few of the early families who settled within the limits of what is now Delaware township:

William Stewart, whose name appears on the assessment roll of Fermanagh township in 1763, came to this county in October 1752, with his parents, Archibald and Margaret Stewart, from Newry, Ireland, and in September, 1753, came up the Juniata and settled on what later was known as the “Bark Tavern Tract,” in Perry County. He was driven off by the Indians, as were the other settlers, and went down to the other side of the mountains, near Carlisle. In 1761 he came up the Juniata River, above his early settlement, to one mile above what is now Thompsontown, and on November 17th, in that year, purchased of Henry Cooper a tract of three hundred acres of land, which was warranted to Jas. Chambers, September 8, 1755, and conveyed to Cooper July 15, 1761. In September, 1763, he warranted forty-three acres adjoining. He returned to near Carlisle in the second exodus of the settlers, and in 1765 married, and Elizabeth, his wife, in an affidavit made in 1810, says that in the spring of 1766 they went to the settlement on Little Juniata Creek, now Centre township, Perry County, (where an account of their early settlement will be found), and in the fall of 1766 they came to the settlement above Delaware Run, where he lived until his death. On August 13, 1768, he purchased an improvement on the opposite side of the river from his settlement, of William Wilcox. This tract then in Milford township, and in 1791 came to Fermanagh. A part of the land on this side, called “Barley-field and Hop-yard,” was sold November 24, 1775, to William Brown and David Walker.

The settlers in this region, then known as the Western County, though themselves struggling with adverse circumstances, responded to the appeal in 1774 of the sufferers of Boston by the infamous Stamp Act, and of the contributors was William Stewart, who paid to that end sixteen shillings. He was out on duty with others from this section in 1778, as the following will set forth:

“Permit the bearer, William Stuart, to pass unmolested to Cumberland County, as he hath served two months honestly and faithfully in the 4th Class of Cumberland Militia. Given under my hand this 4th day of January, 1778. “Philip Mathias, Capt.”

His name also appears in 1780 among those who were associated in this county for protection. He lived until the close of the Revolution and died July 29, 1784, and his wife, Elizabeth, lived with her children until August 12, 1822.

The following receipt is of interest:

“Received of Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart one musket bayonet and belt complete, the property of the United States. “Samuel Bryson, “Lieutenant Mifflin County. “September 2, 1798”

The children of William and Margaret Stewart were John, Wilson, Sarah, Mary, Margaret, Gracey, Elizabeth, Rachel and Rebecca.

John, the eldest, married Elizabeth, a daughter of David Walker, and settled on the home-farm and died April 13, 1831, aged sixty years and ten months. He was a justice of the peace from 1821. His son David succeeded to the farm and died in September, 1836 aged thirty years, the last of the name. The property now belongs to J. Stewart Lukens, a descendant of William Stewart and grandson of Henry and Gracey (Stewart) Lukens. The children of John Stewart were Anna (Mrs. Abraham Lukens); Elizabeth died unmarried; David married Elizabeth McAlister; William died March, 1832; Wilson died May, 1814; Eliza married Dr. Cyrus McCurdy; Mary became the wife of Dr. John Irvin. Of the other children of William and Margaret Stewart, Sarah married Abraham Deen; Mary became Mrs. Noble Crawford; Margaret married George Brown; Gracey married Henry Lukens; Elizabeth married Isaac Cook; Jean became the wife of Andrew Thompson, tailor; Rachel, Mrs. John Thompson; and Rebecca, Mrs. Andrew Thompson, whose husband was a farmer."

If Fermanagh township is where they finally settled, then that would be about 30 miles from the Deans.

I have gone with the William Stewart theory, on the basis that it is more detailed and at least has some documentation. Also, this ancestry for Sarah Stewart has been accepted by the Daughters of the American Revolution for membership (See Lineage Book: https://archive.org/stream/lineagebook3837daug/lineagebook3837daug_djvu.txt). William did have a brother, John. Perhaps he is the mysterious "Captain John Stewart", and his role was confused by his great-grandchildren/nephews.


Sources

  1. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission; Records of the Office of the Comptroller General, RG-4; Tax & Exoneration Lists, 1762-1794; Microfilm Roll: 324
  2. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania. M372, microfilm, 24 rolls. Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Record Group 58. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
  3. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania. M372, microfilm, 24 rolls. Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Record Group 58. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
  4. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania. M372, microfilm, 24 rolls. Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Record Group 58. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
  5. Septennial Census Returns, 1779–1863. Box 1026, microfilm, 14 rolls. Records of the House of Representatives. Records of the General Assembly, Record Group 7. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA.
  6. "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKJ-8MR : accessed 17 July 2015), James Dean, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, United States; citing p. , NARA microfilm publication , (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll ; FHL microfilm .
  7. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733-1952 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Warrant Applications, 1733-1952. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  8. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733-1952 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Warrant Applications, 1733-1952. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania State Archives. Land Warrants. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA.
  9. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania. M372, microfilm, 24 rolls. Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Record Group 58. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
  10. Sessions Book for Buckskin Church, South Salem, Ohio, page 1
  11. Ancestry.com. Ohio, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
  12. Ancestry.com. Ohio, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
  13. Sessions Book for Buckskin Church, South Salem, Ohio, page 14
  14. "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHGQ-NRS : accessed 27 November 2016), John Dean, Buckskin, Ross, Ohio, United States; citing p. 311, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 92; FHL microfilm 181,398.
  15. "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX7S-RXQ : 9 November 2014), Sarah A Dean in household of James Dean, Buckskin, Ross, Ohio, United States; citing family 2812, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  16. "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCGC-5HH : 30 December 2015), Margara D Wilson, 1860.
  17. Year: 1860; Census Place: South Salem, Ross, Ohio; Roll: M653_1030; Page: 269; Image: 544; Family History Library Film: 805030




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It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Sarah by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Sarah:

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Rejected matches › Sarah (Stewart) Lane (1766-1838)

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