Born in Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, the ninth child of Joseph Howard and Ann Shelton Howard. She had a twin sister Matilda.
The family were English converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and came to America in 1864.
They left London, England with 863 saints on the ship Hudson. They arrived in New York 19 Jul 1864. They crossed the plains in the William Hyde Company. Elizabeth was five years old.
Elizabeths twin sister, Matilda, and little three year old sister Tamar, died in August and were buried along the North Platte River. Two months later 8 Oct 1864 her mother Ann Shelton Howard died and was buried at Bitter Creek, Sweetwater, Wyoming.
Joseph Howard with a family of nine living children settled in Utah on the W. S. Muir farm. He later maried again and established a home in Bountiful, Davis, Utah.
Elizabeth learned the pioneer life, as she faced it's hardships, eating its meager supply of food. Barefoot she plodded along the rows of sugar cane or grapes caring for them until her shoulders ached. She husked corn, shelled nuts, washed the wool and put it on the shed to dry, later spun it into yarn which she would knit. He body was taxed, but she grew stron. Through all her tasks she felt and saw rapture in the sunset, the beauty in autumn leaves or joy in the song of a bird. She loved to sing.
When she was 18 years old she married John Cope Dean.
In 1877 she moved with her husband to woodruff. There was no trees, no babbling brook and she was among strangers. That winter they built their first home-- a one room log house with a dirt roof. The door had leather hinges and a leather string for a door knob. Her first four children were born here.
John later made adobe and built a two story home, two rooms dpwn and the upstairs was one large room with a south window, but no ceiling. This was their home until the children went to college, then John built a brick room back of the old home.
They moved to Blackfoot, Bingham, Idaho in 1905. Here Elizabeth spent most of her time caring for her husband and working in her flowers.
She died 8 Jun 1940 in Blackfoot, and is buried in the Groveland Cemetery, Blackfoot, Bingham, Idaho.

(Life History of Elizabeth Howard Dean, written by her daughter, Lucy Caroline Dean Wilson)