The Jeremiah Sage Deen Farm & Deen Family Graveyard

(Just as a note of interest for anyone in this Deen line.)

The location of the Old Deen Farm, was 11 miles out of Brookport, in Pope County, Illinois. Nothing is left of the house except the remnants of the root cellar, but the area immediately behind where the house once stood contains some 15 Deen family tombstones.

In the early 1970's, my Mother Dorothy Reese, (g-daughter of Jeremiah,) discovered the Old Deen Farm and uncovered the family plots, (only about half of the stones still standing upright and so severely overgrown that you could not see either graves or stones, until you literally stumbled over them.) The area by then, was part of The Shawnee National Forest.

My parents, Dorothy and Harry Reese, Aunt Sallie Halter, (Jeremiah's g-daughter,) and her husband Louis Halter, cleared the brush/vines/ years of weeds, reset and in several cases re-cemented the stones. The graveyard was then registered in The National Registry.

Jeremiah's Military tombstone reads: J. S. Deen, Co. K, 29th Regiment, ILL. Volunteers, Feb. 4, 1837 - Nov. 2, 1901

His brother William Daniel Deen is buried nearby. William's Military stone reads: William D. Dean, Co. K, 29th Regiment, ILL. Volunteers, Feb. 22, 1832 - Nov. 6, 1901

Note: That both served in the same Civil War Company for the Union; their names are spelled differently, (Deen-Dean) on matching stones, six feet apart and they died within four days of each other.

For any Deens' in Jeremiah or William's line, who might be around Southern Illinois, or visiting nearby, The Deen Family graveyard lies in the midst of the what is now the Shawnee National Forest on The Bushman Boy Scout Trails, just off the Bald Knob Trail, Marker Post 82, #5.

Happy discoveries.

Ray