Edward Marion Dean.—The man whose name head this brief review has been an important factor in the opening up and development of Morton county. Mr. Dean was born on a farm in Carroll county, Missouri, January 29, 1869, a son of Alexander J. and Eleanor J. McClain Dean. The Dean and McClain families came from Kentucky and Tennessee and settled in Missouri in the early '30s. Alexander J. Dean was born in Cooper county, Missouri, in 1840: Eleanor J. McClain was born in Carroll county, Missouri, in 1850, and they were married in 1867, rearing a family of six children, of whom Edward M. is the eldest, and are now living on a farm near Carrollton, Mo.

The subject of this sketch attended the country schools of Carroll county until he was sixteen years of age, when he went to Colorado to work on the cattle ranges. In April, 1885, he obtained employment on the Point of Rocks ranch in Morton county, and with the exception of two years spent in Idaho and Montana has been identified with the growth of Morton county since that time, following the "round-up" in the earlier days, later as a ranchman, and owner of a general store in Richfield. In the years from 1900 to 1910 he has served as county treasurer four terms, and one term as probate judge. Mr. Dean has always taken an active part in all public affairs of his section, has extensive holdings of land in Morton county, Kansas, and Baca county, Colorado, and is at the present time engaged in the real estate, loan and abstract business. He is one of the progressive citizens who believe in the future of the "short grass' country and who are changing the prairies to fruitful farms. On March 14, 1897, Mr. Dean married Grace, the daughter of Augustus C. and Caroline Wilson. Mrs. Dean was born in Iowa in 1875 and removed with her parents to Meade county, Kansas, in 1886, and to Morton county in 1887. Three interesting boys have come to brighten the Dean home: Edward Clay, born April 15, 1898; Wilson McClain, born November 15, 1901, and Alexander Cole, born December 20, 1907. Mr. Dean is a Democrat in politics and a member of the Masonic order.