My Genealogy Hound

DEE, JOHN V. retired farmer, a resident of Carrollton, and one whose name will go down to posterity as one of the pioneers of the Northwest; was born in Vermont Feb. 15, 1804, the fifth child of John and Elizabeth Dee, who died during the early infancy of the subject of this sketch. During the summer of 1821, John Dee and John, Jr., father and son, settled in Greene County, within eight miles of what is now Carrollton. Wild game of every description, peculiar to the Northwest, abounded, and here and there nestling among the tall native grass might have been seen the frontiersman’s cabin. The father entered 160 acres of land, but tilled the soil but little, as he was a carpenter by occupation; a man who knew no idleness, he became moderately successful in life. He died in 1858. John, Jr., grew to manhood in Greene County, having for his associates some of the best men who trod the prairies of Illinois. When the first war with Blackhawk occurred, in 1830, he enlisted in Captain Fry’s company. Mr. Dee recollects well the signing of the treaty of peace at the old fort on Rock Island. But little more remains to be told; but to such men as John Dee, who pave the way for a high grade of civilization, we owe our national prosperity. From boyhood to manhood, from middle age to old age, Mr. Dee has followed farming with a success, brought about by no lucky accident, but by systematic and well laid plans. For the past few years, a resident of Carrollton, he lives in the enjoyment of the comforts of our modern day. In 1814 Mr. Dee was witness, among others, of the passage on the Ohio River of the first steamboat.