Dean, Harriet W.

Born: 1807-XX-XX New York

Died: 1860-01-24 Jacksonville, Illinois

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

Harriet W. Dean was a teacher, embroideress, and wife of Frederick W. Dean. While still living in her native state, Harriet taught school seven or eight years. After moving to Sangamon County, Illinois, she taught three years in Springfield. When Frederick decided to migrate to California in March 1849 in pursuit of gold, Harriet supported herself by operating a school out of her home. In November 1850, she was living in Springfield with her son Frederick I. and owned real property valued at $700. In addition to teaching, Harriet was an expert seamstress and embroideress, winning three awards for her work in worsted wool at the 1853 Illinois State Agricultural Society Exhibition. In April 1856, Harriet offered a class in cotton and silk embroidery. On January 20, 1860, Frederick I. Dean filed an application to judge the sanity of Harriett. The jury in the case judged her as insane, and on January 21, Harriet entered the Illinois State Asylum and Hospital for the Insane in Jacksonville, where she died.

Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 19 March 1849, 3:1; 20 October 1853, 2:3; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 24 April 1856, 2:5; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 118; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 26 January 1860, 2:4; Albert W. Banton, Jr., Ellen Carol Balm, and Jill York O'Bright, "Blocks 7 and 10, Elijah Iles' Addition, Springfield, Illinois: Lincoln Home National Historic Site," (Historic Resource Study and Historic Structures Report, Springfield, 1987), 217-18.