Henry Clay Dean was an itinerant Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) preacher, lawyer, lecturer and controversial critic of the Civil War and the Lincoln administration. Dean was born in Fayette County, Penn. and came to Iowa in 1850. The Iowa M.E. Conference successively stationed him in Keosauqua, Muscatine, Middletown, Bloomfield and Ottumwa. Supported by Iowa politicians James Harlan and George Wallace Jones, Dean was appointed to the post of Chaplain of the U.S. Senate for the years 1855-1856. Following this term he settled in Mount Pleasant and remained there until 1871 when he moved to Putnam County, Missouri. Dean's opposition to the Civil War and alliance with the Copperhead movement led to public confrontations with authorities in Mount Pleasant (1862) and Keokuk (1863) and to the publication of his book, Crimes of the Civil War in 1868.
From the description of Henry Clay Dean papers and research files compiled by Edgar R. Harlan, 1846-1911. (State Historical Society of Iowa, Library). WorldCat record id: 70786424
