They were pioneers (1852) of the Oregon Trail.

Comfort Dean born 1807 in Va. She was married to Joseph Dimmick May 15, 1827 in Ohio and she died in 1858 in Monroe, OR.

Source: Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 45, August 20, 2014

Ancestors of actor, Kelsey Grahamm

Benjamin Dean James Dean Comfort Dean who married Joseph Dimmick

Name: Benjamin Dean
•Sex: M
•Birth: 14 MAR 1762 in Ireland
•Death: BET. 1830 - 1840 in Morgan County, Ohio
•Census: 1820 OH Morgan Center 2/2
•Census: 1830 OH Morgan Center
•Immigration: 1774 English Ship
•Note:
In 1822 Benjamin DEAN was a judge in an election in Center Township and lived at the Jesse HAINES place on the Manchester---Center Twp border (Ohio).

Ohio Land Records
Name: BENJAMIN DEEN
Land Office: ZANESVILLE
Document Number: 1838
Total Acres: 78.86
Signature: Yes
Canceled Document: No
Issue Date: April 01, 1829
Metes and Bounds: No
Statutory Reference: 3 Stat. 566
Multiple Warrantee Names: No
Act or Treaty: April 24, 1820
Multiple Patentee Names: No
Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries
Land Description: 1 W½NE OHIO RIVER SURVEY No 7 N 10 W 33

The first direct relative we know of was Benjamin. He was born March 14, 1762 and according to an article written about Eli Deen, came to America in 1774 aboard an English ship. Like many immigrants of the time we know nothing about his parents or other family. If he was in fact Irish, his family records were most like destroyed by the British and we will never know anything about them.

Benjamin came to America as an indentured servant to a man named Collins. Imagine the America Benjamin came to. He was poor, came from a family that had lost their lands and property less than sixty years prior. He arrived in a country also seething under British rule, but one with the means to fight back, and on the rise to full-scale rebellion. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party had already occurred and the Battle of Bunker Hill was within a year if not months. The Committees of Correspondence had been established for several years and many colonies were overtly protesting the tactics of their British appointed Governors.

Our official documentation of Benjamin begins with his joining the "Thirteenth Virginia Regiment of the Foote" in 1776 at the age of 14. He may have joined up in order to pay off his servitude or as an expression of his own hatred for the English. Over the next five years his name is variously recorded as Deen, Dean, Dane and Dun, but whenever we see his signature, it is written as Deen. We have copies of his pay musters and know the adventures of his regiment.

In November of 1776, the 13th Regiment of Foot of the Virginia Continental Line was organized under Colonel William Russell. The 13th was also known as "The West Augusta Volunteers". In the spring of 1777 five companies of the 13th were sent to join Washington's army in New Jersey. The 13th Virginia became part of Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg's brigade of Major General Nathaniel Greene's division. In September of 1777, the 13th fought in the battle of Brandywine Creek near Philadelphia. In October 1777, they participated in a major attack on General William Howe's British army at Germantown. During the winter of 1777-1778, the 13th Virginia was with George Washington at Valley Forge.

In the spring of 1778 the Continental Congress approved a plan to capture British held Detroit in order to stop British instigated Indian attacks on the western frontier. The 8th Pennsylvania and the 13th Virginia were selected to carry out this campaign. This detachment was to be commanded by Colonel John Gibson, who had been selected by Washington because he was familiar with Indian warfare. The main body of the 13th was sent to Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, while supplies were accumulated and plans were developed. The supplies were slow in arriving and the summer came and went. In the autumn, the plan was scaled down. Instead of moving swiftly from Pittsburgh for a surprise attack on Detroit, a fort was to be established in eastern Ohio. The hope was that such a fort might discourage Indian raids in western Pennsylvania, or even swing Indian support from the British to the Americans. Also it was decided that Detroit could be attacked more easily from an advanced post. During this period of preparation, the combined 8th and 13th were re-designated as the 9th Virginia.

Before moving into the Ohio country, arrangements had to be made for passing through the territory of the American Indian allies, the Christian Delawares. Permission was granted and the army marched out of Pittsburgh in November of 1778. During this march the regiment was augmented by local militia.

The army followed the Ohio River downstream from Pittsburgh. When they reached the point where the present Ohio-Pennsylvania boundary is located, they stopped and constructed a fort. This fort was named Fort Mclntosh after General Lachlan Mclntosh who had replaced Edward Hand as commander of the western department in May of 1778. A small garrison was left at Ft. Mclntosh and the main army continued westward to the Tuscarawas River. Here was located the Christian Delaware village of Goschagunk (present day Coshocton). The Indians asked that a fort also be built at this site. The Christian Delawares had openly supported the American cause and had thereby incurred the enmity of the British and their Indian allies. For some reason the Americans decided instead to move upstream to a site near the present day village of Bolivar, Ohio. Here they erected a very small square wooden stockade. It was named Fort Laurens after Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress. After Ft. Laurens was completed, the main body of soldiers returned to Pittsburgh leaving Colonel Gibson and about 150 men including Benjamin Deen.

The winter was one of extreme hardship for the men and women at Ft. Laurens. The British at Detroit did send a force, mainly of Wyandot Indians to punish the Christian Delawares and to lay siege to Ft. Laurens. Since the fort was far upstream from Goschagunk, the Americans were of no help to the Christian Delawares. During the siege, a party of fourteen Americans left the fort to hunt for food. They were ambushed within sight of the fort and all but two of them were killed and scalped. The two that survived the ambush were taken captive. Food supplies in the fort dwindled but the British and Indians also ran short. Finally the Indians approached the fort to make a deal for food. John Gibson collected up every trace of flour in the fort, which amounted to one barrel full. When he gave this to the Indians, he led them to believe that they could easily spare one mere barrel of flour. The Indians took this to mean that the fort was so well provisioned that a continued siege would be a long drawn out matter. The Indians promptly left and returned to their villages in northwestern Ohio and the few British returned to Detroit.

With the Indians gone, a supply train was able to reach Fort Laurens from Pittsburgh. The occupants of the fort, however, were so overjoyed at seeing the pack train coming that they fired their guns in celebration. This so frightened the pack animals that they stampeded into the woods spilling their loads. Practically nothing of the supplies were recovered.

In the spring of 1779 Capt. Benjamin Harrison was ordered to escort a train of pack animals to Ft. Laurens for the purpose of bringing out the garrison. He was given specific orders that the animals were not to be slaughtered and eaten. Fort Laurens was abandoned permanently in the summer of 1779.

Benjamin was officially discharged in the summer of 1780, and at that time he moved to what was then Hampshire County, Virginia where he had received a land grant for his Revolutionary War service. Hampshire was in what would later become West Virginia, but not far from the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Ohio Territory.

In 1784 Benjamin transferred his land grant to James Marney in what was then Frederick County, Virginia. Marney was also of Irish descent and had recently married. Giving up his land grant must have meant that Ben was still in need of money because it left him without property. We believe that it was around ths same time married to a woman named Lucretia. We know nothing about her, although there is some conjecture that she was of Scotch-Irish descent. Certainly both Western Virginia and Western Pennsylvania were heavily populated by the Scotch-Irish. Ben and Lucretia may have been starting their own family and Ben felt renting a farm would suffice.

Frederick had been surveyed by George Washington in the 1750s and held the largest population west of the Blue Ridge mountains. With fertile land it was quickly filled with families looking to farm and soon the County was divided to create Hampshire County. Hampshire was in turn divided in 1785 to create Hardy County. This is where Benjamin and Lucretia lived for at least the next fifteen years.

While there is also evidence of a Benjamin Deen in Nelson County, Virginia, which later became Kentucky we know from surviving documents that this was not our Benjamin. In 1789 our Benjamin signed a petition requesting the right to sell a quay formerly owned by the Church of England. His signature on this petition is a match to his signature in his pension application in 1818. Because we know the Benjamin who signed the pension application is our ancestor, through the signature we also know that he lived in West Virginia.

Soon Benjamin and Lucretia had started a family. We don't know how many children they had in all, but family researchers reference 4 or 5 sons.

While our family is not yet in Iowa, we have established that the oral tradition passed down through the generations bears resemblance to the historical records. The next part of our journey will follow our family as they continued to live on the frontier and help settle new territories in their move further westward.

Marriage 1 Lucretia b: 1757 in West Virginia Territory • Married: BET. 1780 - 1785 in Virginia
Children
1.Has Children Samuel Dean b: 1785 in Virginia
2.Has Children James Dean b: 1788 in Virginia
3.Has No Children John Dean b: 1790 in Virginia
4.Has Children Enos Deen b: 2 APR 1791 in Virginia
5.Has Children Enoch Dean b: 1798 in Virginia

*******************************************************************
Name: James Dean
•Sex: M
•Birth: 1788 in Virginia
•Census: 1820 OH Morgan Center 2/2
•Census: 1830 OH Morgan Center
•Census: 1840 OH Morgan Center

Father: Benjamin Dean b: 14 MAR 1762 in Ireland
Mother: Lucretia b: 1757 in West Virginia Territory

Marriage 1 Ann b: in Morgan County, Ohio
Children
1.Has Children Comfort Dean b: 24 DEC 1808 in Virginia
2.Has No Children Enos Deen b: BET. 1810 - 1820
3.Has No Children Jesse Deen b: BET. 1810 - 1820
4.Has No Children Lewis Deen b: BET. 1810 - 1820

Marriage 2 Matty West b: 1805 in Ohio•Married: 7 JAN 1821 in Morgan County, Ohio
Children
1.Has Children Mary Deen b: 8 FEB 1822
2.Has No Children Nathan Deen b: 7 FEB 1824
3.Has Children Isaac Deen b: 3 JUL 1826 in Ohio
4.Has No Children John Deen b: 10 JUL 1828
5.Has No Children Nancy Deen b: 3 MAR 1830
6.Has No Children Lucinda Deen b: 3 MAR 1830