My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN S. DEAN. — As journalism for the last quarter of a century has broadened its scope and elevated its aims, the editors of New York have never been found laggards in the march of progress, and the press of Jamestown has kept fully abreast of the papers of any other city in the western part of the State. One of their number that is worthy of particular mention is The Morning News, edited by Benjamin S. Dean. He is the eldest son and second child of Philo N. and Rosella S. (Fisher) Dean, and was born at Randolph, Cattaraugus county. New York, May 10, 1860. His paternal grandfather, Norman Dean, was a resident of Allegany county, New York, where he married and reared a family of three sons and two daughters. His maternal grandfather, Simeon Fisher, was a native of Vermont, where for many years he was a very prominent and influential citizen and a trusted whig leader. At one time he was a candidate for governor of the “Green Mountain State,” and his delicate sense of honor was such that he would not vote for himself, and thereby lost the governorship, as the election resulted in a tie between him and his opponent, and was thrown into the legislature, which decided against him. About 1836 he moved to Waterborough, this county, but afterwards removed to Randolph, in Cattaraugus county, where he died in 1864, aged sixty- three years. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, a congregationalist in religion, and an old-line whig in politics until the agitation of the slavery question, when he became a strong and leading abolitionist. He was one of the founders of the Republican party in the State, and was actively advocating its principles at the time of his death. He was of English descent, and married a Miss Brookins, who bore him three sons and five daughters. Philo N. Dean (father) was born at Centreville, Allegany county, N. Y., in 1832, and in 1858 removed to Randolph, in Cattaraugus county, where he has resided ever since. He is a shoemaker by trade, and a republican in politics. He married Rosella S. Fisher, who was born in 1830. Their children are: Emma L., wife of Edward May, a banker of Artesian City, South Dakota; Benjamin S.; Odel H., married Martha Turner, of Addison, and is a clerk in a dry goods house; Daniel W., who is city editor of the Morning News of Jamestown and Louella A., wife of James Tanner, a lumber dealer of Artesian City, S. D.

Benjamin S. Dean received a common school education, which he has supplemented by reading, observation and self-study. At thirteen years of age he began life for himself in Michigan as a wood sawyer, which he followed for one year. He then (1874) entered the office of the Randolph Register, of Randolph, N. Y., to learn the printing business. After three years of faithful work on that paper, he went to Pennsylvania, where he worked for two years on the Emlenton Register. Later he purchased the Register, and enjoyed a large patronage until one of his correspondents furnished an article whose publication incensed the business men of the town. Some sixty of them in a body visited Mr. Dean and demanded the correspondent’s name, but actuated by that sense of honor which lost his grandfather Fisher the governorship of Vermont, he declined to accede to their request, although he knew his denial would result in the downfall of his paper. They withdrew their advertisements and used their influence so effectively against him that he was compelled to suspend publication two weeks afterwards. In a short lime he became foreman of a New York city Sunday paper, and then served as city editor of the Olean Morning Herald, and associate editor of the Sunday Mirror of the same place. Late in 1882 he purchased an interest in the Randolph Register, which he edited until 1885. In the latter year he came to Jamestown, where he became a partner in the publication of the Morning News, and immediately assumed editorial charge of its columns, which he has retained ever since.

On the 27th of June, 1883, he united in marriage with Emil C. Blaisdell, daughter of the late Richard Blaisdell, of Gawanda, Cattaraugus county, New York. To their union has been born one child, a daughter named Blanche B.

In political affairs Mr. Dean takes an active part, and his pen is always wielded vigorously in behalf of the principles, the prosperity and the progress of the Republican party. His paper, the Morning News, is a power in the cause of Republicanism in Chautauqua county.