Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Dean, Hon. John February 15, 1835 - ????
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 12, 2024, 1:40 pm

Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

HON. JOHN DEAN,
the present nominee of the Republican party for the office of justice of the
supreme court of Pennsylvania, ranks deservedly high as a jurist, and is one
of those men who need not the dignity of office to give him name, power and
influence among his fellow-citizens, or to command public respect and
confidence wherever he is known. He is a son of Matthew and Anna (Patterson)
Dean, (both of whom were born in Huntingdon county), and was born at
Williamsburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1835. With many other
worthy names, the name of Dean is stamped upon the earliest history of
Huntingdon county. Elizabeth Dean, the great-grandmother of Hon. John Dean,
and three of her children were massacred in Canoe valley, in 1780, by a
Delaware war party. Her husband, Matthew Dean, and five of their children
escaped the tomahawk of the vengeful Indian by being at some distance from
the house. Matthew Dean (see historical sketch in this volume), who was of
Scotch-Irish extraction, had settled in Canoe valley prior to the
revolutionary war, and of his five children who were not killed in 1780, one
was John Dean (grandfather), of Water Street, Huntingdon county. He married
and reared a family in his native township, of which he was a life-long
resident. His son, Matthew Dean, was born in 1808, and died in December,
1886, at seventy-eight years of age. He was an industrious and useful
citizen; although a tanner by trade, his principal business in life was that
of farming. He married Anna Patterson, daughter of John Patterson, of
Huntingdon county. They reared a family of clever children, eight sons and
three daughters, all living except the youngest son.
   John Dean received his education in the common schools, Williamsburg academy
and Washington college, of Washington, Pennsylvania, taught school at
Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg, and read law with James M. Bell and D. H.
Hoffius, of Hollidaysburg. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar, and in the
same year opened an office at Hollidaysburg, where he was engaged in the
practice of his profession until May, 1857, when he was elected
superintendent of the common schools of his county for a term of three years.
Two years latter he resigned the superintendency to form a law partnership
with Hon. Samuel S. Blair, which continued to exist until 1864, when Mr. Dean
withdrew and practiced alone for three years. He was then (October, 1867)
appointed district attorney, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
J. H. Keatley, and the next year was elected for a term of three years, which
he served with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. At the close
of his elective term, in 1871, he was nominated and elected by the republicans
as president judge of the Twenty-fourth judicial district for a term of ten
years, over the regular nominee of the Democratic party and an independent
candidate. His record was such on the bench that in 1881 he was re-nominated
and elected without opposition, an unmistable [sic] evidence of the popular
approval of his faithful and eminent services during his first term. His
district comprised the counties of Huntingdon, Blair and Cambria, and his
position was one of hard and constant labor, as the rapidly increasing
business of these three counties imposed upon him an immense amount of labor.
His two terms were remarkable not only for the great volume of their business,
but also for the importance of their many individual cases. He decided every
cause upon its merits, after a careful hearing and a thorough examination of
every authority bearing in any degree upon the question involved, and thus he
attained high standing as a judge before the supreme court, as well as the
bench at large. In 1892, if elected judge of the Supreme Court, he will
retire from the common pleas bench with the good will of the bar, and the
esteem and respect of the public, for the ability, disinterestedness and
impartiality with which he had presided for twenty years over the courts of
the Twenty-fourth judicial district. In recognition of his eminent ability as
a jurist, his high standing as a lawyer, and his deserved popularity for honor
and integrity, Judge John Dean was nominated by the Republican party, in their
State convention in Harrisburg, in April, 1892, as their candidate for the
vacant justiceship of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, occasioned by the
death of Judge Silas M. Clark, over such well-known judges as Harry White, of
Indiana county, Judge Sadler, Judge Henderson, Judge Ewing, and others.
In 1857 Judge Dean married Rebecca Calwell, daughter of Judge Calwell, of
Hollidaysburg. His wife died in 1874. He again, in November, 1876, married
Margaret Bell, daughter of Martin Bell. They have four children: Eliza, Anna,
Claribel, and Margaret.
   Judge Dean has a beautiful home at Hollidaysburg, gives some attention to the
management of his farming and other lands, and enjoys a popularity throughout
central Pennsylvania that has been possessed by but very few other men since
its settlement. As a lawyer his ability was recognized during the earlier
years of his practice, and he soon rose to the highest rank in his
profession, where he has held a commanding position ever since, and from
which no allurement of political life, however powerful, has ever been able
to draw him away. As a judge he was distinguished by his able opinions and
impartial decisions, an as a citizen he is enterprising and progressive. As a
man, in the true sense of the word, Judge Dean has won the esteem and respect
ever due to those whose lives are devoted to right living and usefulness. As
a public speaker he is able, pleasing, popular and eloquent, and his services
are in constant demand as a lecturer on the leading questions and vital issues
of the day.
   In personal appearance Judge Dean is prepossessing, dignified and
gentlemanly. Over six feet in height, he is erect and active, and his clear
and finely cut features give unmistakable evidence of his energy, earnestness
and determined force of character.
   Judge John Dean has met the tasks and duties of every important post which he
has held, with prudence, courage and forethought. Although controlled by
ideas, sentiment and principle, yet he is practical when necessity demands or
occasion requires. If Judge Dean is chosen in November (1892) by the ballots
of his fellow-citizens to occupy a seat upon the supreme bench of the State,
the history of his past career is sufficient to warrant that he will not be
one to suffer the dignity and learning and efficiency of the supreme bench to
fall from its present high standard.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com

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