“Jonathan Dean, third child and second son [of offspring living in 1903] of William B. and Sarah Ann Dean, was born May 25, 1832, in Plymouth, Ingham [sic] county, Michigan, and grew to maturity on his father’s farm. In early life he followed boating on the Saginaw river, but later turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, purchasing of his father eighty acres of wild land in Bunker Hill township, which in due time he cleared and improved. He became one of the enterprising farmers of the above township, also took high rank was a citizen and man of affairs and continued to live on his original purchase until 1892, when he sold out to his son and changed his abode to the town of Mason. After remaining there two years he bought a fine farm of one hundred and forty acres in the township of Rives, and on the later place he has since lived and prospered, being one of the oldest as well as one of the most substantial residents of the county at the present time.
Jonathan Dean was married in Bunker Hill township, Ingham county, to Miss Mary Cross, a union blessed with five children, namely: William B., whose name introduced this sketch; Jessie, now the wife of J. L. Cross and the mother of two offspring, Estelle and Paul; Annie who married Charles Ripley, of Henrietta township, and whose family consists of two children, Dean and Blair, the later deceased; Amy, still a member of the home circle, and John, who also resides under the parental roof. Mr. Dean provided well for the educational discipline of his children, all of whom are intelligent and far in advance of the majority in mental culture and general knowledge. Amy, the youngest daughter, was educated in the Mason high school and for six years has been one of the country’s most efficient and popular teachers; she is also quite a proficient musician and as a teacher of the art has a wide reputation. In his younger days Jonathan Dean was a Whig, but since the dissolution of that old historic party, he has been unwavering in his allegiance to its successor, the Republican party. In matters religious he subscribes to the Methodist doctrine, a church to which his wife also belongs, both being active workers and he a liberal supporter of the congregation with which they are identified. Sufficient has already been said to form a correct estimate of the high social standing of the Dean family in the community. The name is an honorable one and as far as known no one bearing it has ever tarnished its luster by unworthy conduct or disreputable practice. In all that constitutes true manhood Jonathan Dean occupies a conspicuous place among his contemporaries, and as a citizen with the public welfare at heart he has long been an influential factor in the affairs of his township an county.”
   ["DeLand's History of Jackson County, Michigan" By Colonel Charles V. DeLand, Publisher B.F. Bowen 1903. Place]

Death Certificate:
   Johnathan Dean
   Died: 3/27/1905 Rives, Jackson Co., MI
   Born: 5/25/1832 Mich
   Age: 72y 10m 2d
   Married; Married at age 29; 5 children born, 5 living
   Father: William Dean, born New York
   Mother: Sarah McComber, born Vermont
   Occ: Farmer
   Informant: Mrs. Mary Dean, Munith, Mich, R.D. #1
   Burial: Dean Cemetery, Fitchburgh; 3/29/1905
   Undertaker: B. A. Davis, Leslie, Mich