Came into Canada in the early 1840’s. Was married soon afterwards. Peter Dean notes that he left his family in 1863 after his wife died in childbirth, and that he joined the US Army for the Civil War (Peter has 6 letters that were sent back to son Michael, and his military records). He never returned to Canada, and it is rumoured that he started another family in the US.

He did work with two of his sons in the oil fields of Pennsylvania for a few years, after the Civil War.