The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century:

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEADIA.
mnercantile establishment in the old city of Bremen as ann
apprentice, his term of apprenticeship being four years.
After his term expired he entered the large glass factory of
Hermann Heye, near Minden, Prussia, as bookkeeper and
correspondent. Ilaving remained there four years, and
having for several years contemplated emig,ration to the
United States, he left Bremen in September, 1854, and
arrived in New York, from whence he went, after a few
days' stay, to Baltimore, where, through the recommendation of a friend, who left Europe a few years before him,
he received an appointment as bookkeeper in a large
American wholesale dry-goods house. However, not feeling quite at home yet in the English language, he left his
position, and with a friend started for the far West, then
so called, making Burlington, Iowa, his destination. Travelling mostly by rail, and the balance from Galesburg, Illinois, by stage-coach, the trip was made. He first entered
a drug store, and commenced his career by mixing up a lot
of putty. After a year in this position he accepted a position in a hardware store, and in September, I856, accepted
a position in a large wholesale hardware house in Chicago
as bookkeeper. In the fall of 1859 he went to Toledo,
accepting an offer in the hardware business. Later, in
i86i, he took the position of cashier and bookkeeper with
a large commission house on Water street, remaining with
them until their dissolution, a period of six years. He
started in the commission business for himself in 1869. In
the fall of 1874 be was nominated by the Democratic party
and Liberal Republicans for the office of County Auditor,
and elected by nearly 700 majority, in the October election.
He has been a Republican since the party organized, and
during the last Presidential election a Liberal Republican,
but without ever taking a very active part in politics. lHe
was married in I858 to Mrs. Caroline Poeschel, from
Vienna, Austria.
nineteen years old, was appointed by the Secretary of War
an En si gn in the I i th Regi men t of Unite d State s In fant ry,
then doi t aing duty against the Britishon the tonorthern frontier;
and on February 2oth, I815, he was com missione d a Second
Lieuten an t by Pr esi dent Madison, t o take r ank fr om October
ISt, I814, for meritorious conduct in the sortie of Fort Erie,
on I7th September, I8I4. He w as in the battles of Bridgewater'and Chippewa; and his regiment he ld the advance in
the storming of Queenstown Heights, in September, i8I4.
of twenty, he was placed in command of a revenue cutter
on Lake Champlain, in which capacity he rendered e ffec -
tive service in guarding the interests of the country against
the ever daring class engaged in smuggling. After occupying t pn fr at t a this position for about two years he resigned the service,
and was n ext a ssigned to a place in the corps of g overnment
enge o ineers who ran the boundary line between the State of
Maine and the province o f New Brun swick, and was so
employed about a year. Having d etermined b y this time
upon his future career, he went to Burlington, Vermont,
where be became a student at law, under the preceptorship
of Governor C. P. Van Ness, and remained with him for
two years, and then removed to Plattsburg, New York,
where he completed his preparatory course of law study.
On October ISt, I822, be was admitted, by the Supreme
Court of Appeals of the State of New' York, a member of
the bar of that State. In 1822, when Ohio was among the
young and thinly peopled Western States, he removed to
Wooster and entered into the practice of the law, in W~ayne
and the surrounding counties. lie devoted his entire
energies to the study of the law and the practice of his profession for the succeeding seven years; and in I832 he was
chosen by the General Assembly, President Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas, his circuit being composed of the
counties of Wayne, Knox, Holmes, Richland, Medina, and
Lorain. lie served in that capacity the full constitutional
term of seven years. He took his place on the bench in
the beginning of the exciting discussions on the slavery
question. In some of the counties of his judicial district,
especially in Knox, clubs or combinations were formed to
prohibit all discussion of the slavery question; and in some
instances they went so far as to commit acts of outrageous
violence against those individuals who attempted to address
the people on the slavery question. These combinations
were made up from both the Whig and Democratic parties,
and seemed to represent the sentiments of the people.
Judge Dean did not hesitate'a moment as to his course of
official duty. In every county where these combinations
existed, he charged the grand juries that it was their duty
to ferret out and indict all those engaged, either in overt
acts of violence or in Secret conspiracies against-the sacred
right of free discussion. In one instance his associates were
so terrified at the symptoms of violence in the crowd, that
they feigned sickness and deserted the bench; but this did
not terrify Judge Dean; he was there to do his duty. Upon
EAN, HON. EZRA, Soldier, Lawyer, and Jurist,
wa s b orn, April gth, 1795, in the town of Hills dale, Columbia county, New York, and was
descended from an ancient family which settled
in Massachusetts in I63O, each successive genera tion of which appears to have contained some
man of eminence in the different departments of life. During the first five generations the gospel ministry seems to
have been the profession most favored, until about the
period of the American Revolution, when lawyers first made
their appearance in the family. Among these latter was
Silas Dean, who took an active part in the Revolution, and
who was chosen by the Continental Congress, in September,
I776, one of the ambassadors, in connection with Benjamin
Franklin and Thomas Paine, to conduct the negotiations
between the confederated colonies and France. Others of
the family, less conspicuous, were doing duty in the ranks
of the revolutionary'army. Ezra Dean, when he was but
49
885
I
I
I - o
I