Benjamin Franklin Dear

Brief Life History of Benjamin Franklin

When Benjamin Franklin Dear was born on 8 January 1899, in Alto, Cherokee, Texas, United States, his father, Willis Henry Dear, was 28 and his mother, Mary Frances Musick, was 26. He had at least 5 sons with Sallie Vera Poland. He lived in Justice Precinct 5, Hardin, Texas, United States in 1940 and Silsbee, Hardin, Texas, United States in 1950. He registered for military service in 1917. He died on 16 January 1968, in Houston, Harris, Texas, United States, at the age of 69, and was buried in Kings, Hardin, Texas, United States.

Photos and Memories (1)

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Family Time Line

Benjamin Franklin Dear
1899–1968
Sallie Vera Poland
1906–1964
James Harold Dear
1926–1989
Wineth Eugene Dear
1930–2001
Billy Frankin Dear
1934–2023
Charles Dewain Dear
1940–2021
Robert Allen Dear
1943–1963

Sources (23)

  • B F Dear, "United States 1950 Census"
  • Benjamin Franklin Dear, "Texas Births and Christenings, 1840-1981"
  • Benjamin Franklin Dear, "Texas, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947"

World Events (8)

1900 · Gold for Cash!

This Act set a price at which gold could be traded for paper money.

1901 · Spindletop Oilfield Discovered

Spindletop, located south of Beaumont, becomes the first major oil well to be discovered in Texas. Other fields were discovered in shortly after, which ultimately led to the highly impactful "oil boom".

1918 · Attempting to Stop the War

To end World War I, President Wilson created a list of principles to be used as negotiations for peace among the nations. Known as The Fourteen Points, the principles were outlined in a speech on war aimed toward the idea of peace but most of the Allied forces were skeptical of this Wilsonian idealism.

Name Meaning

English: from the Middle English personal name Dere, successor of the Old English Dēor(a), itself a short form of various compound names formed with dēore ‘dear, beloved,' or directly from a nickname deriving from Middle English dere ‘dear, beloved’, or dere ‘fierce, brave, bold’. Dēor(a) was quite a common Old English byname, which remained current as a personal name into the 14th century. The surname may derive at least in part from this use, and in part also from a Middle English nickname.

English: nickname from Middle English der, Old English dēor ‘wild animal; deer’, or from the adjective of the same form, meaning ‘wild, fierce’, perhaps denoting a fast runner or someone easily frightened. By the Middle English period the adjective was falling out of use, and the noun was beginning to be restricted to the sense of modern English deer, so this may be the sense behind the surname in some cases.

Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 謝, see Xie 1.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

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