Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Dean, William E 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 2, 2008, 3:44 am

Author: Past & Present Will County, 1907

William E. Dean is proprietor of a music house at Joliet, which bears an 
excellent reputation throughout the county and this part of the state. Mr. 
Dean has become widely recognized as a leading merchant of the city and as one 
whose success is well merited because it has been attained through honorable, 
straightforward methods and untiring industry. A native of New York, he was 
born in Amsterdam, Montgomery county, on January 11, 1855. His parents were 
Jehiel and Elizabeth A. Dean, who resided on a farm during the early boyhood 
of their son William. They afterward removed to Illinois and he completed his 
education, which was begun in the schools of New York state, at Marengo and 
Union, Illinois. He entered business life as a book agent and followed that 
pursuit with considerable success for six months, when on the 2d of August, 
1876, he started a piano business at Belvidere, Illinois, and a year later 
established a similar business at Marengo, Illinois. There he remained for 
about five years, and in 1882 went to Freeport, Illinois, where he conducted a 
music house until October, 1885. He then became general agent for Estey & 
Camp, filling that position until October, 1889, when he was appointed special 
agent for Kimball & Company, with whom he remained for more than a year. He 
next took the general agency for the Manufacturers Piano Company, filling that 
position from October, 1890, until April, 1895. He was next general agent for 
Hallett & Davis, from March, 1895, until July, 1896. At this period Mr. Dean 
decided on opening a music house in Joliet on his own account, believing that 
such a venture would prove profitable, for he had thoroughly investigated the 
trade conditions of that district. Time has proven the wisdom of his judgment 
in this regard. The Dean music house has established a reputation that makes 
it well known not only throughout Will county, but in adjoining counties as 
well. Mr. Dean carries an excellent line of musical goods of all descriptions 
and in his store may be purchased anything from a piano or organ to a Jew's 
harp or a sheet of music. His methods are very reliable and he carries only 
first class goods. It is known that he never misrepresents anything which he 
has on sale and his long connection with the music trade well qualifies him to 
supply the public demand. On the 27th of May, 1879, Mr. Dean was united in 
marriage to Miss Hattie Lucas and unto them have been born a daughter and two 
sons. The daughter, Mabel A., is now completing her education in Olivet 
College in Michigan, while the sons, Louis and Francis, are assisting their 
father in business. Mr. Dean is a deacon of the Eastern Avenue Baptist church 
and for six years has been superintendent of the Rockdale Sunday-school. He is 
deeply and actively interested in church work and his labors have been an 
element in the growth of the church and the extension of its influence. He 
votes with the republican party where national issues and questions are 
involved, but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He has never 
sought or desired political preferment, but is widely recognized as a man of 
generous public spirit and as a co-operant factor in many measures for the 
public good.

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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