Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM B. DEAN
WILLIAM B. DEAN.--A very popular business man of Chico is William B. Dean, manager of the lumber and building material department for the Diamond Match Company, in that city. He was born in Dallas City, Hancock County, Ill., November 24, 1869, a son of Albert L. and Ellen E. (Toof) Dean, who were born in Ohio and Illinois respectively. The Dean family were farmers in Illinois until 1884, when they migrated to the Pacific Coast, where Mr. Dean entered the employ of the Sierra Lumber Company at Chico, and remained in their employ until his death. His widow also passed her last days in Chico. She was the mother of three children: Nellie A., now Mrs. Harry Moir, of Chico; J. Wilson Dean, M. D., who graduated fro the St. Louis Medical College and has practiced medicine in that city ever since, but is now on the medical staff in the United States army, with the rank of first lieutenant; and William B. Dean of this review.
William B. Dean accompanied his parents to California and settled with them in Chico, where he finished his education in the public school. He then entered the employ of the Sierra Lumber Company as office boy, and advancing step by step gradually and thoroughly learned the business. He was bill clerk, assistant bookkeeper, bookkeeper, and then manager of the company. He was with the company on May 19, 1904, when a great fire swept the yards. Within sixty days after the fire the yards were rebuilt and filled, and the entire plant restored. When the Diamond Match Company took over the lumber business, in 1906, he continued as manager of the retail yard system, having nine yards under his supervision. The system by which these are operated together was gradually developed by him; and in time twenty-three yards and two factories were in operation under the same management. The company manufactures mill work, sash, doors and boxes, and has a large factory at Red Bluff and one at Chico. The yards are distributed in various places. The apiary department has grown to large proportions, and there is a large output of beehives and other bee keepers’ supplies.
Besides his lumber yard interests, Mr. Dean has made ventures in horticulture. He set out an apple orchard nine miles from Watsonville, in Valencia Valley, Santa Cruz County, and on twenty-five and one half acres he has trees over sixteen years old. He also owns agricultural land in San Joaquin and Colusa Counties, as well as at Hunters Point, on the water front in San Francisco.
Mr. Dean has been a resident of Chico since 1884, and it was here that his first marriage occurred, when he wedded Miss Lulu Waddams, a native of Butte County. She died after two and one half years of married life, leaving two children: Leta, who is a graduate of the Chico State Normal, class of 1917; and Vera, also a graduate from the same institution, class of 1918. The second marriage of Mr. Dean united him with Miss Bertha I. Fish, a native of Michigan. Mr. Dean was made a Mason in Chico Lodge, No. 111, F. and A .M.; and belongs to Chico Chapter, No. 42, R. A. M.; to Chico Commandery, No. 12, K. T.; and to Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Dean are both members of Josephine Chapter, No. 104, O. E. S., of Chico; and he is a member of the lumbermen’s organization, the Hoo Hoo’s.
For
the past two years Mr. Dean has been chairman of the Chico Development
Association, which is now merged with the Chico Business Men’s Association, of
which he is a director. He did valuable work on road and bridge improvement,
and in the matter of locating settlers in the county. He is president of the
Western Retail Lumberman’s Association, which has its headquarters in Spokane;
and he is a director of the Sacramento Valley Lumbermen’s Association. In this
connection, the extensiveness of the Diamond Match Company’s enterprises may be
noted, for it has many retail yards in the department under Mr. Dean. These are
located at Chico, Woodland, Yuba City, Live Oak, Gridley, Orland, Maxwell,
Lincoln, Willows, Corning, Williams, Germantown, Hamilton City, Durham,
Dunnigan, Richvale, Biggs, Gerber, Roseville, Arbuckle, East Nicolaus, Los
Molinos, and Red Bluff, and are so operated that they prove the greatest help
to those who would build a home economically. Mr. Dean is also a member of the
California State Automobile Association, and is a member of its board of
directors.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 3/12/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 821-822, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies