Biography of Josiah Deanes and Sarah Ann Taylor of Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 7/2002 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= Biography of Josiah Deanes and Sarah Ann Taylor of Union Parish Louisiana Written and submitted to the Union Parish Archives by T. D. Hudson ================================================================================= JOSIAH DEANES & SARAH ANN TAYLOR Josiah Deanes was born in North Carolina about 1800, probably in Hertford County. The destruction of Hertford County's early court records presents a severe obstacle towards provingwho Josiah's father was, but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that he was the son of Jesse Deanes. Jesse Deanes lived in Hertford County from before 1800 until his death about 1826; Jesse was the sheriff of Hertford in 1824 - 1825, and died while in office. Josiah first married about 1819 or early 1820, for the 1820 census of Hertford County indicated that he had a wife born between 1794 and 1804. They had two children, William, born about 1822, and John, born about 1824. Josiah's wife died at or shortly after the birth of John. Either between the births of his two young sons, or just after John's birth, Josiah Deanes moved his family to Butler County Alabama. He remarried to Sarah Ann Taylor about 1826 in Alabama. Sarah was born between 1808 and 1811, apparently in Putnam County Georgia, the daughter of William Taylor and Catharine Gray. The Taylors moved to the Butler County region about 1818. Sarah's brother John was the Butler County sheriff in 1828, and the 1830 Butler County census showed the Taylor family living together, including the widowed Catherine next door to Josiah Deanes' household. Lowndes County lay just north of Butler, and Sarah's brothers bought plantations there in the early 1830s. By 1836 Josiah had followed them to Lowndes County, but I have found no record of his purchasing land there. Perhaps he lived on the large plantations of Sarah's brothers. In 1837 Sarah Taylor Deanes' brother John Taylor left Butler and Lowndes County Alabama and moved to northwestern Ouachita Parish Louisiana. The government had just completed surveying that area and recently put the lands there on the market for sale to United States citizens. John Taylor was one of the citizens of that region who appeared before the Louisiana Legislature in 1838 to request the creation of a new parish. When the legislature created Union Parish out of northwestern Ouachita in 1839, they appointed Taylor the first parish judge, a position he held for over twenty years. Josiah and Sarah apparently moved with John Taylor to north Louisiana in 1837. Josiah Deanes bought a farm northeast of Farmerville, near the large plantation of Sarah's brother John. They lived there during the 1840s and through 1850, but Josiah died on 8 October 1851. His death left Sarah with a house full of young children, including six under eighteen years of age. She continued to maintain Josiah's old farm, undoubtedly with the help of her oldest sons Jesse and Elijah, as well as her stepsons whom she raised, William and John. Sarah Ann Taylor Deanes' date of death is unknown, but it occurred between 1870 and 1880. ============================================================================================== Sources: I wrote this brief biography based upon my own personal research into the Dean family, utilizing in particular these sources: ++ the court records of Union Parish LA ++ US census records ++ National Archives records ++ family Bible records