Henry Clay Dean

As printed in 1911

HENRY CLAY DEAN.

Henry Clay Dean was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1822. He was a graduate of Madison College, Pennsylvania, taught for a time and studied law. In 1845 he joined the Methodist Episcopal conference of Virginia and began to preach in the mountain region of that state, where he remained for four years. In 1850 he removed to Iowa, locating at Pittsburg, Van Buren county, where he preached to the Keosauqua circuit, joining the Fairfield conference. It was a short time after that that he was stationed at Muscatine. He preached here but a short time but made a lasting impression. The Methodist church was not a large one at that time but Dean would fill it every Sunday. Through the influence of General George W. Jones, one of the first United States senators from Iowa, he was chosen as chaplain of the senate. He was one of the trustees of the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt Pleasant, Iowa. Mr. Dean was admitted to the bar but did not practice law. He was a public speaker of rare eloquence and was frequently invited to deliver lectures, among which was a Reply to IngersoU, The Constitution, Declaration of Independence and many other topics. During the Civil war he was arrested for disloyal utterances and confined in prison for several months by order of government officials. Upon his release he wrote and published a book with the title Crimes of the Civil War. It was a bitter assault upon President Lincoln and the administration in the great work of subduing the rebellion. 'He removed to a farm in Putnam county, Missouri, which he named Rebel Cove. It was four miles from a station on the Burlington railroad, where a postoffice was named Dean. There he spent his last days, reading and writing. His great library was destroyed by fire at that place. He died on his farm in 1887, and thus passed a geat character of history.

As printed in History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time; (1911). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.