On land bought January 22, 1863, by Frances Clarenda Rice Dean (1836-76) with Confederate pay sent home from her husband Major John Dean's Civil War post, John Dean had this house built in 1872 using Louisiana heart pine lumber that he himself milled and seasoned. Jesse Duckinfield, an ex-slave, made and burned brick from farm clay. When finished, the house was considered the finest in the community, and it remained in the builder's family a century later.