John Dean and Martha Holdsworth

John Dean was born on 28th of February in Burnley, Lancashire, England. He went to work in the mills at an early age to help support his mother, a sister, and a brother. John married Martha Holdsworth is 1832. Martha was born June 11, 1814 in Pendle, England, as the daughter of James and Sarah Lund Holdsworth. She was the fourth child in a family of eight children. John and Martha had ten children, six sons and four daughters: William, Mary Ann, Eliza, Ellen, James, Joseph ,Hyrum, Heber, Jedediah, and Martha Harriett.

Their home in England was a two-story house built of stone. The living room was on the ground floor that included a fireplace and a reservoir. The floor was of flagstone, and after it was scrubbed, fine white sand was put on to keep it clean longer. The bedrooms were on the second floor. Martha took care of the home and the family while John worked in the mills. The children also worked in the mills as soon as they were old enough (which was very early at the time).

John and Martha joined the church in 1840, and when the other mill workers learned of their baptism, they made life so unpleasant for John that he moved his family to Harlington, a town 11 miles from Burnley. They lived there for several years, then moved back to Burnley.

Once John and Mary were baptized, they began to save money to emigrate to America. By 1855, they had saved enough to pay the fare for two on the boat to New York. They decided to send their oldest son, William, and their second daughter, Ellen, with their aunt, Harriet Hyde, her family, and other saints who were emigrating. William was then 19 years old and Ellen was 15 years old. William and Ellen worked in the mills in upper New York State. In 1861, Ellen returned to England because of ill health.

In 1859, their son James enlisted in the English Army. He served for two years and the family had to pay quite a sum to obtain his release, which delayed their emigration.

John and their third son, Joseph, emigrated in 1864. They joined William, who had married, in working in the mills in New York. In 1865, Martha, Eliza, Heber, Jedediah, and Martha Harriet joined them. They remained in New York until July 1866, earning money for their trip, then came to Utah. They traveled by rail to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then on to Florence, Nebraska, by boat on the Missouri River. They crossed the plains with ox teams in Joseph L. Rawlins Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on October 1, 1866. They spent the winter in Kaysville, where they worked on farms, in brickyards, and herded sheep. In the spring the men and eldest daughter, Eliza, found work in the Brigham Young Mills in Salt Lake City at the Sugarhouse Ward. John and Martha were endowed in the Endowment House in 1868.

In 1870, the Beaver Woolen Mills were erected and the Dean family were asked to locate there - which they did, with the exception of Joseph, who moved to Ogden. John worked in the mills in Beaver for two years. He died of pneumonia in July 1872 at the age of 61. He was very industrious, religious, and kind to his family. He was also honest and congenial with his friends and neighbors. Shortly after the last of her children were married, Martha scalded her foot and was an invalid for the rest of her life. She was a very devout Latter-day Saint, a good mother and homemaker. She died 30 December 1890 at the age of 76, and was buried in the Mountain View cemetery at Beaver, Utah.