| i. | STEPHEN I4 DOLSON, b. Abt. 1845. |
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Notes for STEPHEN I DOLSON: Waw a riverboat captain. Probably born in IL. |
| ii. | LEANDER G DOLSON, b. Abt. 1846. |
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Notes for LEANDER G DOLSON: Was riverboat engineer. |
| iii. | THOMAS H DOLSON. |
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Notes for THOMAS H DOLSON: Riverboat pilot. |
| i. | THERESA ELIZABETH4 DEAN, b. March 07, 1850, Perry Co., MO. |
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Notes for THERESA ELIZABETH DEAN: 1860 Perry County, Missouri census lists Theresa Dean as one year of age. This must be a younger sister of Theresa Elizabeth, neither living at the time GWD wrote his war letters, 1862-3. |
| ii. | WILLIAM STEPHEN DEAN, b. May 02, 1853, Perryville, MO; d. November 20, 1920, Potosi, WI; m. ROSA REICHMAN, 1878, Cassville, WI. |
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Notes for WILLIAM STEPHEN DEAN: William and Rosa were married at Cassville, Wisconsin, Grant county, having eloped on a Sunday afternoon. William was working for Rosa's father at the time. Reichman's farm was about one mile south of No. Buena Vista (above the second hollow south of town now known as Dean Hollow). In the spring of 1862 at 9 years of age he rode a horse from Perryville, Missouri to North Buena Vista, Iowa, while his parents, two brothers, Henry and Charles, and sister Mary Martha, rode in the wagon pulled by two oxen. The following year when he had just turned ten years of age, his father was killed in Civil war battle at Black River bridge, Mississippi. Grave stone in cemetery at N. Buena Vista is engraved "WILLIAM DEAN MAY 2, 1853 NOV. 20, 1920--ROSA HIS WIFE JULY 9, 1862 MAY 25, 1920 FATHER AND MOTHER". |
| iii. | CHARLES THOMAS DEAN, b. July 19, 1855, Iowa; d. March 13, 1926; m. MARY LOUISE COLLINS, August 30, 1877. |
| iv. | JOSEPH HENRY DEAN, b. May 25, 1857, Perryville, MO; d. November 27, 1915, Meckling, SD, Clay County; m. CLARA VIOLA COLLINS, December 15, 1879. |
| v. | TERESA DEAN, b. Abt. 1859. |
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Notes for TERESA DEAN: 1860 Perry County, Missouri census lists Theresa Dean as one year of age. This must be a younger sister of Theresa Elizabeth, neither living at the time GWD wrote his war letters, 1862-3. |
| vi. | MARY MARTHA DEAN, b. August 02, 1860, Perry Co., MO; d. June 08, 1943; m. (1) SAMUEL HART; m. (2) GEORGE WENTWORTH, November 05, 1876. |
| vii. | EMMA4 NELSON, d. 1869. |
| viii. | MARY HELENA NELSON, b. March 17, 1865; d. July 16, 1936; m. (1) WILLIAM H MORRIS, April 26, 1880; m. (2) WILLIAM A EDWARDS, November 25, 1888. |
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Notes for MARY HELENA NELSON: Two children with William H Morris Five children with William A Edwards Mary Helena a.k.a. Ella This letter to Helen Dean and Joseph Dean, son of William Dean and Rosa Reichman from Mary Helena (Ella) Nelson (b) March 17, 1865, daughter of Harriet Ann Dolson Dean and James Nelson. N.N.E.5338 Colorado, Ave. Washington, D.C. November 13, 1933 Dear Helen and Joe and Family, Will try to send you a few lines in answer to your good letter so gladly received. I am alone this eve and waiting for the folks to come in from their different places of employment. Pauline is manager of a beauty parlor over in Alexander, Va., about 8 miles from the city here. Last year she taught in the Nordern School of Beauty Culture here in the city. She didn't work through the summer months, but through one of the former places she secured this position she has now. I am explaining all this to show why I am answering your letter instead of Pauline. She will write too, of course. But she is always so late getting home and of course tired, too. I have wanted to write to you many times but just put it off, and to write to Mamie, too. I often think of all of you and want to write but it seems that I never get to it. Remember me to Mamie when you write and to Charley's folks when you see them. I am not much good at writing anymore. I make so many mistakes and I am getting so that I can't see very good anymore since I had that last slight stroke in July a year ago. My sight and hearing has been worse and I have had to walk with a cane. My health is better now but I still use the cane. Helen, we were so very glad to hear from you and to get all the information. Yes, it will be a real undertaking to gather the required information from just our own family. We started out with Grandfolks Dolson, my mother's father, and sometime ago we had gathered about two hundred descendants. But now the Great and Great, Great Grandchildren are coming on there are several more. We started with Stephen Dolson and Elizabeth James, my mother's parents. They had 7 children and she died. Grand Father married again, had one child, she died and he married again. He was the father of 20 children so you see there is a bunch of Dolsons scattered around in the U.S.A. And Great Grand Father's name was John Dolson. He was one of Washington's first volunteer soldiers of the Revolutionary war. We have spent many evenings at the Congressional Library looking over old war records and the Revolutionary War records and at the government census bureau. It is interesting and fascinating when you get into it. But it seems like a never ending job. I know it must have been quite an undertaking for you to go to the different homes for the data you have sent us. And, yes, it is too bad people don't keep a record of their families. I have tried to keep mine but I don't believe that any of the rest of our family did. You spoke of William's and Rosa's marriage date. I don't know the date but I remember very well when they came home to our house. You can figure it pretty well from Hattie's birth. And they were not married at Holy Cross, they were married at Cassville, Wisc. I may be telling family secrets, but I guess it doesn't make any special difference now. There was nothing criminal. They just run off one Sunday afternoon, took a skiff and went to Cassville and was married. I don't know whether it was a judge or justice of the peace. This is just as I have heard it told. They got back home and he still worked on several days or maybe weeks. He worked for Rosa's father. Finally they run off one night, got some neighbor to take them to the train. They came to our house. We lived at Hazelton, Iowa then. I was 14 then. They stayed at our place for some time. I done the house work while Mother and Rosa made quilts and sheets and, oh, the general outfit for housekeeping, and finally the baby clothes. They moved in with Charley's near Hazelton, Iowa. Martha and Jud lived there too. Their first baby was born there too, Phrena, born the 12th of April, Will the 3rd of May and Hattie in October. They finally went back to Buna (Buena Vista) and William worked for Rosa's father again. That same fall my parents bought a little place in a little inland town or village called Little York. It is 6 miles from Greely, Iowa and 6 miles from Strawberry Point. Our post office town, also the railroad town, was Edgewood. We moved there late that fall. Along toward spring Martha and Jud moved to Little York, too. There Martha's second child, Sis, was born, April 2nd. In February I believe, brother Charley's second child was born. A girl named Clara. This is 1880. I was married April 26, 1880: Sis was 2 weeks old. Shortly after this, say 6 weeks or 2 months, William and Rosa came to Little York to live. Charley and Mary came and stayed for a while at Mother's and we all had a visit with them before they went to Nebraska where Mary's folks lived. A little later brother Henry went and later married Mary's sister Clara. We came to Little York that summer, too, and stayed with the folks after Charley's had left. William and Rosa lived across the street from us and Martha lived a block up the other way, so we all lived there close. William and Jud and my husband all worked together a lot that fall and winter. In March 1881 Katie was born at Little York. Mother took care of her. In August 1881 my first child was born, Mattie. When she was 4 weeks old Mother and Ben went to Nebraska and shortly after that, say, the last of October, William and Rosa and their 2 children and Martha and Jud and their 2 children went to Nebraska. They had a team and covered wagon between them. That is, they moved them together. They had a cow and a dog I believe, and they made the trip that way. Shipped some of their household goods by train, which didn't get through for 6 weeks or more. By this time Charley and Henry had each bought a lot and built a cabin in Blair. We all landed there eventually. later that same fall I went and took my father with me. My husband came just before Christmas. A part of that first winter we all lived in those cabins. There were 16 to 18. Two families in each. With Mother and Father and Ben and myself and baby Esther but we soon got thinned out. William and Henry and Jud worked together in town. Charley worked for the railroad company. My husband did carpenter work, although he was a miller by trade. He later ran the mill there. We used to put the chairs and table outdoors at night so we could have room for beds. And in the morning we all got up about the same time and stacked up the bedding so we could get in the chairs and table to have breakfast. Industrious, wasn't it. No, we weren't pioneering, but near it. Blair was only a little berg then. Everybody had to manage any way they could to get along. Charles was born in Blair in July 1883 and my second child was born in January 13 following. Those were interesting years for all of us. The big bridge across the Missouri River was finished that spring of 1884. I have seen the third bridge across there finished in 1930 or 31 since I went to Nebraska. They ran the coaches on a ferry boat then. Well this is quite a bit of Nebraska history and family history so perhaps I had better quit. I hope that you don't mind my very long historical letter. But at times when I am here alone I like to think over the old days and remember each one as they were then. I doubt if Joe or Mamie ever saw their mother thin and Katie little and skinny. They were just that. Rosa was so very thin and boney and she was not well. She wanted to go back to Buna. Katie was so little and skinny and puny that William decided to take them back, so they went. We didn't see William for 22 years. When he came to see us at Blair and Fremont after our mother had died and then I had never seen only his first three children. I never knew when Rosa's birthday was. I only heard them say that she was 16 when they came home that time. She must have been born in 1863. but I don't know the month. William was born May 3rd 1855. He was 24 when they were married. Well, dear, with all this big letter I haven't got room for anything else. I wanted to tell you of this wonderful country over here. I could write for a week and then couldn't do it justice. I wanted to tell Joe of my son Pressley. Joe and Mamie will remember him. Press has a son and a daughter. They live in Chicago. The son, Don, will be 21 in March. He is married. The daughter, Marjorie, will be 19 the 8th of December. Pauline has no children. Write again. Love and regards from us all. Aunt Ella |
| ix. | CYNTHIA ELIZABETH NELSON, b. June 14, 1867; d. March 1869. |
| x. | BENJAMIN NELSON, b. July 28, 1870; m. MATHILDA JANE GIGGIE, 1894. |
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Notes for BENJAMIN NELSON: Had eight children |
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