Julia Dean, Cti6Wt.d M. Buck

JULIA DEAN By Clifford M. Buck

In the book "The Twenty Seventh Wife" by Irving Wallace, published by Simon and Schuster 1961, on page 134 there is the following statement: "Brigham Young was madly in love with actress Julia Dean Hayne. Julia Dean was born in Pleasant Valley, New York, July 22, 1830." Because Julia Dean was born in Pleasant Valley and because the Deans were a promient family in Dutchess County, I became interested in finding more about her. The book continues with the following information: that she was a child prodigy and was on the stage by age 16, that in 1855 she married Dr. Arthur Hayne in Charleston, S.C. and later divorced him. She went to Salt Lake City July 26, 1865 with a company and played for one week starting August 11, 1865. At the end of the week Brigham Young offered her $300 a week and she stayed eleven months. He built a sleigh and named it the Julia Dean and took her in it to several parties and that he tried to convert her to become a Mormon and also proposed marriage, but she would have neither. In 1866 she married James G. Cooper, Secretary of Utah Territory and on July 4, 1866 she bid farewell to the theatre in Salt Lake City and returned to New York City. While pregnant, she was in her last performance there in October 1967. On March 6, 1868 she died giving birth to a stillborn girl and she was buried in Port Jervis, N. Y. So much for the account from "The Twenty Seventh Wife." I searched Dean wills, deeds, mortgages and church records and could find no trace of a Dean with daughter Julia. Next I found the following item in the Poughkeepsie Telegraph for October 19, 1831. "At Pleasant Valley on 16th Mrs. Julia wife of Edwin Dean, formerly Miss Drake of Kentucky Theaters." Obviously because of the date this was not our Julia but because of the name and connection with the theatre she might well be the mother. In the Friends Cemetery at Pleasant Valley, located back of the present Grange Hall there is a gravestone which reads: "Julia Dean wife of Edwin a. 28 y." In Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, New York D. Appleton 1888, v. 2 p 115 we have the following account: DEAN, JULIA actress b. in Pleasant Valley, N.Y. July 22, 1830; d. in New York City, 6 March 1868. She was the daughter of Julia Drake, an actress who married Thomas Fosdick for her first husband, and later Edmund Dean, a well known manager of Buffalo and Rochester Theatres. Her education for the stage was accomplished under his direction. She appeared first as Lady Ellen in "The Lady of the Lake," during 1845, in Louisville, Ky. Later in the same year she filled an engagement at the Bowery Theatre, N. Y. and appeared as Julia in "The Hunchback." Her success was flattering and in November 1846, she played the same part in the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia. In 1855 she married Dr. Arthur Hayne of Charleston, S.C. In May 1856 she sailed for San Francisco and after an absence of nearly two years returned to the east with the proceeds of a very successful tour. She was divorced from her husband on the ground of his failure to support her, and in 1866 married James Cooper of New York. Her last appearance in New York was in October 1867. She excelled in juvenile tragedy and high comedy parts. 73

Thinking I might learn a little more about Julia Dean from her gravestone, I went to the Laurel Cemetery in Port Jervis. It was just before Memorial Day. I found the caretaker and he said he was too busy mowing the cemetery to bother to look up his records. So I walked about trying to find a gravestone without success. Mrs. Marion Denzel of Hackensack, N.J. was working on another problem in the Dean family. I wrote her of my unsuccessful visit to the cemetery. She wrote to the Chamber of Commerce in Port Jervis. As a result, their secretary, Mrs. Dorothy E. Kokolias wrote that their Historical Society writer had brought in a copy of the Minnisink paper printed May, 1969, of which she had made a copy which follows: "In Laurel Grove cemetery, a short distance from the main entrance and near the Neversink River, in an unmarked grave, sleeps one of the most beloved actresses in the history of the American Theatre - Julia Dean. "She was born in Pleasant Valley, July 22, 1830. Her parents were Edmund Dean, a well known theatre manager, and Julia Drake, a daughter of Samuel Drake, a pioneer Kentucky theatre manager. When Julia was two years of age, her mother died, and she went to live with her father's parents, who were Quakers. At the age of 11 years, she returned to her father's home; Edmund had married again several years after the death of Julia's mother. Julia assisted in the household duties and played several small roles in the various theatres with which he was connected. "In 1844 and 1845, the three Deans were members of the Ludlow and Smith Co. in Mobile, Alabama, and there Julia served a rather trying apprenticeship. The following year Julia went north with her father. At the age of 15, appearing on short notice, she scored her first success as Lady Ellen in "The Lady of the Lake." Her father promptly took her to New York, where she played, on May 18, 1846, "Julia" in "The Hunchback" at the Bowery Theatre. So great was her success that, for a time, she made this tragic role almost her own. "The beauty of her gentle personality, as well as the loveliness of her face, won her way into the hearts of the public, who saw in her, their ideal of American girlhood. She was, according to Lawrence Hutton, the Julia of all Julias, and for quiet effect and subdued personality, she was the peer of all others. The next few years saw her rise to the top in her profession and to a popularity which few, if any, have since achieved. At the age of 25, she married Arthur Hayne, son of U. S. Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina, whom Daniel Webster once engaged in famous debate. "Her marriage was not a happy one; this cast a shadow over her performances, which in turn, reflected adversely in public opinion. Finding that her popularity was waning, she and her husband went to California. In San Francisco, she again became a box office idol and traveled about the state, frequently appearing in small towns. In Sacramento, she was the joint proprietress of a theatre. At the age of 35 she toured the Rocky Mountain States, ending up in Salt Lake City in July 1865, where she remained until the following June; then she again returned to San Francisco. There she divorced her husband and once more set out for New York, which she had not visited for several years. Here she tried again, in vain, to win back her former place in the hearts of the theater going public, 74

but her acting had lost the simple naturalness that constituted its charm. In 1867, she married James G. Cooper and on March 6th of the following year she died in childbirth. She and James are buried near the Allerton lot which is located a short distance south of the lower gate in Laurel Grove Cemetery. "One of the entrancing love stories of all time among the theatrical profession was that of Julia and Joseph Jefferson who were often associated with each other at the start of their careers. Joseph was a famous comedian; he was born in Philadelphia in 1829 and died in 1905. He achieved international success and appeared at the Adelphi Theater in London. In 1865 as Rip Van Winkle, by which name he was thereafter known." Again, I visited the Laurel Grove Cemetery, and found the Allerton plot, south of the Main Gate, near the Neversink River bank a short distance from several large pine trees. South of the Allerton monument there is an open space sufficient for two graves. So Pleasant Valley had two Julia Deans who were actresses, one Julia Drake Dean buried in the Friends cemetery in Pleasant Valley and one Julia Dean Cooper buried in Laurel Grove cemetery, Port Jervis. Although the Dean and Drake families are well known Pleasant Valley and Dutchess County families, I have not been able to find any further information on the ancestry of the two Julias.