Louis Lafayette Dean

LOUIS LAFAYETTE DEAN, postmaster and merchant at Neutral, and manager for the branch office for the Long-Bell Lumber Company at this place, was born at Osceola, Clark County, Iowa, July 30, 1868 and is a son of Newton Jasper and Mollie M. (Zink) Dean.

Moses Dean, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was born at Schenectady, New York. At an early day he moved to Ohio and later to Iowa, farming and following his trade of shoemaking. Subsequently he devoted his attention solely to agricultural pursuits. He married Priscilla Suddith, who still survives and resides with her son, Newton Jasper Dean.

Newton Jasper Dean, father of Louis L., was born in Newton County, Ohio, where the family lived until he was 12 years of old, when the family home became established in Iowa, and in the "Hawkeye State" he completed his education. Until 1855 he followed farming in Iowa and then removed to Kansas City, Missouri, where he successfully engaged in a livery business. Upon leaving that city, he was occupied in farming for one year in Leavenworth County, Kansas. After a short stay at Argentine, Kansas, he settled at Gardner, where he was engaged in the butcher business until 1899, when the whole family came to Cherokee County. Mr. Dean in association with his sons is now engaged in a mercantile business at Neutral, handling a large line of dry goods and groceries. He married Mollie M. Zink, a daughter of Louis Zink, a farmer of Iowa. The two sons of this marriage are Louis Lafayette and James Moses.

Louis L. Dean attended school in Iowa and later spent two years in Kansas City, Missouri, completing a very liberal course of instruction at the age of 19 years. For some time after leaving school, he followed the carpenter's trade in and around Kansas City, but in 1888 removed with his parents to Gardner, Kansas, where he was employed by the G. B. Shaw Lumber Company and continued with that firm for 18 months. At the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, he went to Coffeyville and entered into the lumber business for C. S. Pellet at Enid and Pond Creek, Oklahoma, where he remained four months and then engaged with The Long-Bell Lumber Company and in their interest remained one year at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Since then he has been located at Neutral where he has full charge of the branch of The Long-Bell Lumber Company. He is interested with his father and brother in merchandising at Neutral and since January 1, 1898, has been postmaster at Neutral.

On August 21, 1895, Mr. Dean was married to Mary Ida Sizemore,who is a daughter of James C. Sizemore, of Spring Valley township. They have one daughter,--Marjorie Louise.

Politically, Mr. Dean is a strong Republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is recognized as one of the progressive business men of this section and one of its representative citizens.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, instructor from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 6-27-97