14: Debra Ann and Caroline Sarles Dean

Graves of Debra Ann Dean and Caroline Sarles Dean

There are three Deans buried in the cemetery. The graves of Debra Ann Dean (1799-1854) and Caroline Sarles Dean (1826-1906) are next to each other and look a bit incongruous. The former is slim, pale, and modestly detailed, and the latter large, modern, and blocky. Then there is the grave of Marcus Dean, which was badly damaged at some point after 1914; the part that remained was replaced on its base.

How were these people related? Were they related? Debra's grave states that she was the wife of Silas W. Dean, but he isn't buried in the cemetery.

One of Silas Dean's descendants, a man by the name of Henry Cornell Woolley Black, was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and it is from his application that I know that Silas himself was a descendant of Elijah Dean, a Revolutionary War soldier. Here is the genealogy that Henry Black wrote:

Sons of the American Revolution Application of Henry C. W. Black, 1932

I figured that Elijah Dean's descendants had probably also joined the DAR, so I searched in their genealogical database. Sure enough, four people have joined the DAR as descendants of Elijah Dean through his son David and his wife Deborah Holmes - including a granddaughter of Henry Black.

But let's return to Debra Ann Greene Dean, who is the only member of this line buried in the cemetery. In 1850, which is the first year that women and children ever existed as far as the census is concerned, she was living in New York City with her husband and their flock of children. Silas was a hatter.

1850 US Federal Census

Here we find a Caroline Dean whose age matches up with the Caroline Sarles Dean buried in the cemetery. I had assumed that she was born Caroline Sarles and married a Dean, but it's also possible that she never married, and that her name was Caroline Sarles Dean from birth.

For the answer, we need to travel 50 years later to 1900, when the 74-year-old Caroline Dean was living with her sister Mary's son Henry - the one who would apply for the Sons of the American Revolution in 1932 - in Pequannoc, New Jersey. Henry lived with his Irish-born wife, Ella (Elinor), their daughter (Caroline) Elizabeth, and three "boarders" who were in fact relatives. Caroline and Selso Dean were Henry's aunt and uncle. Poor Henry and Elinor had had four children in their seven years of marriage, but only one was living.

1900 US Federal Census

Henry was a farmer. Elinor, whose maiden name was Casey, had come to the United States 18 years earlier.

The strangely named Selso Dean, who like his sister never married, was a soldier in the Civil War. I can't find him in any other censuses beside the 1850 and the 1900. He's buried in Arlington Memorial Park Cemetery in New Jersey.

Caroline Dean died on her 80th birthday in 1906 and was buried beside her mother. Four years after her death, her nephew and niece were living with their daughter in Babylon, Long Island. Henry now worked as a bill clerk in an express office - quite different from his former occupation as a farmer. Strangely, they are now listed as the parents of one child, with one living. Was the number given in the 1900 census a mistake, or did the Blacks neglect to mention their three deceased children in order to avoid dredging up bad memories? Perhaps the question was qualified in a different way in the 1910 census, e.g. not counting stillbirths. In any case, it's interesting to note that the 1900 census only counted a mother's children, while the 1910 census enumerates the children of both parents.

1910 US Federal Census

Five years later, the Blacks were still in Babylon, living with Elinor's sister Bessie and 19-year-old Blossom. Who is Blossom? She's listed as Henry and Elinor's daughter, and given her age, I'm inclined to say it's Elizabeth. Why she went by Blossom is a mystery. Her full name, given by her descendants to the DAR, was Caroline Elizabeth Ann Black.

1915 New York State Census

According to the DAR record, Caroline/Elizabeth/Blossom married George Joseph Brooks and died in 1918, leaving a daughter, Mildred Elinor. The date of her death suggests that she could have died in or after childbirth, or possibly in the flu pandemic of that year. As revealed by the 1920 census, Henry and Elinor assumed responsibility their granddaughter's care.

1920 US Federal Census

Elinor Casey Black died in 1925. Henry and Mildred moved in with his sister, Mary Woll (probably Woolley; I suspect the Henry Woolley listed living with Henry was her father-in-law), who seems to have been quite well off. Her house, which she owned, was worth $45,000. For comparison, my great-grandparents bought their five bedroom house in Westchester in the 1920s for about $3,000. The address was 64 West 69th Street - less than a block away from Central Park.

1930 US Federal Census

According to StreetEasy, the building at that address has four stories with ten units and was built in 1910. I believe that this is it, identified on Google Street View (the number 64 can be seen on the door in the lower center):

64 West 69th Street, NY, NY

By 1940, Mary Woolley had died, leaving the house to her brother Henry. He was 70, living with his 21-year-old granddaughter Mildred, 22-year-old lodger Phyllis Kaler, his chauffeur Norman Harris, and his cook (and Norman's wife) Catherine Harris. Both Mildred and Phyllis had been to college, perhaps the same one. Henry worked as a textile salesman.

1940 US Federal Census

Mildred married James Louis Pettit in 1942, and had five children. He was a captain in World War II. Mildred died in 1992 and James in 2008. You can read his obituary here.

1. Elijah Dean (1701-1760) m. (2) Sophia Leonard (1717-1762) in 1742
1. Elijah Dean (1747-1792) m. Susanna Bass (1749-1829) in 1768
1. David Dean (1769-1860) m. Deborah Holmes (1769-1827) in 1796
1. Silas Washington Dean (1800-1865) m. Debra Ann Greene (1799-1854) in 1820
1. Caroline Sarles Dean (1826-1906) 
2. Elizabeth Dean (1832-)
3. Agnes Dean (1834-)
4. William Dean (1835-)
5. Selso Dean (1840-after 1900)
6. Mary Dean (1841-1916) m. John Henry Black (1839-1908) in 1861
1. George H. Black (1864-after 1930) 
2. Mary Black (1866-1930s) m. Unknown Woolley 
3. Henry Cornell Woolley Black (1870-after 1930) m. Elinor Casey (1869-1925) in 1892
1. Caroline Elizabeth Ann Black (1895-1918) m. George Joseph Brooks (1893-)
1. Mildred Elinor Black (1918-1992) m. James Louis Pettit (1917-2008) in 1942