According to details which were noted in his last will, which was dated June 1, 1797, and filed and proved in the following month, Dean's death appears to have been preceded by a long illness. He designated his two sisters as his executrices, and the fact that his will specified the appointment of a Mr. Thomas Yardley, Jr., as guardian of his three children indicates that he may have been a widower at the time of his death.
A surveying compass by this maker was recently brought to light in, the Clark County Historical Society, Springfield, Ohio, by Dr. Donald A. Hutzlar of the Ohio State Museum. The instrument is a plain compass in brass without levels, 13-1/2 inches in length, and with a 5-inch needle. The dial is marked "DEAN PHILADa." The wooden cover for the instrument is marked with the names of previous owners and dates, as follows:
Jno. C. Symes, Aug. 10, 1778
I. Ludlow, 1791
Henry Donnel, July 24, 1794
Jonathan Donnel, 1796
John Dyherty
Thomas J. Kizer, 1838
David J. Kizer, '78.
A description of this instrument in "The History of Clark County, Ohio" by A. P. Steele, published in 1881 by the W. H. Beers Co. of Chicago, adds considerably to its interest as a historical record of American scientific instruments and their use: "Col. Thomas Kizer, the veteran surveyor, has in his possession a compass made by Dean of Philadelphia; this instrument was owned and used by his father, David Kizer, who obtained it from John Dougherty about 1813; Dougherty got it from Jonathan Donnel. This relic is marked I. Ludlow, 1791; Henry Donnel, 1794; J. Donnel, 1796, John Dougherty, 1799; these marks are rudely scratched upon the cover of the instrument, and bear every evidence of being genuine; there is no doubt but that this old compass was used in making the first surveys in this county, or that it is the identical instrument used by John Dougherty, in laying off Demint's first plat of Springfield, and by Jonathan Donnel on the survey of 'New Boston.'" It is to be noted that some discrepancies exist in the listing of names and dates of the previous owners between Steele's History and those which actually appear on the cover of the instrument. Steele apparently made the changes he deemed necessary in his account of the instrument.
Between 1791 and 1795 the same address was also occupied by a cooper named Michael Davenport, and from 1797 to 1801 by "the Widow Davenport," presumably widow of Michael. From 1802 to 1804 the same address is listed for William Davenport, "Mathematical Instrument Maker," apprentice to William Dean, and believed to be the son of Michael. During the next ten years Davenport's address was 45 South Front Street, and then, to 1820, was 25 South Front Street.[64] Several brass surveying compasses bearing his name have survived.
Another maker of mathematical instruments about whom nothing further is known is Charles Taws, who was listed in this manner in the Philadelphia directory of 1795.
Figure 30.—Brass surveying compass marked "F. Heisely Fred:*town." In collection of Ohio Historical Society, Ohio State Museum.
The making of instruments in glass appears to have been a specialized business in the Colonies, because those who worked in this field do not appear to have produced instruments in other materials. One of these makers of glass instruments—specifically barometers, thermometers and "Glass Bubbles to prove spirits, of different kinds"—was Alloysius Ketterer. He maintained a shop in the house of a Charles Kugler at "the sign of the Seven Stars," corner of Race and Fourth Streets in Philadelphia, in 1789. He moved to another address in Race Street in 1790 and was eventually succeeded in business by Martin Fisher, who increased the number of types of glass instruments made and sold at the shop.[65]
Henry Voight (1738-1814) was a man with a varied career. Of German ancestry, he was trained as a clock-and watchmaker, and he was a skilled mechanic. He operated a wire mill in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1780 and moved shortly thereafter to Philadelphia, where he established a clockmaker's shop on Second Street. He became a close friend of the inventor John Fitch in about 1786, and in the following year he became a shareholder in Fitch's company for producing steamboats. In 1792 he entered into a short-lived partnership with Fitch to manufacture steam engines. In 1793 he invented a process for making steel from bar iron. In the same year President Washington appointed Voight to the position of chief coiner of the Philadelphia Mint, and he continued in that position until his death in 1814. He was closely associated with David Rittenhouse, Andrew Ellicott, Edward Duffield, and others.