Deans and the Whiskey Rebellion

I was reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton when I was struck by his description of the Whiskey Rebellion, specifically, of its epicenter as west-central Pennsylvania. The Whiskey Rebellion took place from 1791-1794, and guess who was living in west-central Pennsylvania at that time? The early Dean family! Specifically, my 6xgreat-grandfather, James Dean, who died around 1795 (his wife was probably already dead by this point), and his son and daughter-in-law, my 5xgreat-grandparents, Abraham and Sarah Stewart Dean.

The Whiskey Rebellion began in the Appalachian area, among the Scotch-Irish small farmers, who were enraged by a whiskey tax that was far more punitive and inconvenient to them than to the larger distilleries of the coast. Many small farmers made whiskey as a more efficient way of transporting their crops for sale across poor roads. The tax was detrimental to one of their primary money-making enterprises and the required inspections were problematic given their dispersed farmsteads and difficult traveling conditions.

The resistance to the tax had its most formal expression on July 27, 1791, when a group of community leaders gathered at Redstone Old Fort in Fayette County and signed a proclamation declaring their grievance. The most prominent politician present was Albert Gallatin, later Thomas Jefferson's secretary of treasury. Among those who signed the statement was one "John Canon", possibly from Washington County.

There is a John Canon (or Canan) who was the son-in-law of James Dean, husband of Abraham's sister, Margary.  Could he have been the signatory? We do know he was a civic leader, according to this biography of his son, also named John, who was a Pennsylvania representative:

John Canan, his father, was born in Ireland in 1746; his mother, Margery Dean, also born there, came to America before the Revolution, and they were married here. John Canan was second lieutenant in the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment in 1777. In 1786 and '87 he was a member of the general assembly from Bedford county. He was also a member of the supreme executive council from 1787 to 1790. Under the constitution of 1790 he was appointed an associate judge and he was again a member of the assembly from Huntingdon county from 1791 to '94, and senator from Huntingdon and Bedford from 1795 to 1799. He owned a large estate in land, and late in life entered the forge and furnace business, being unfortunate in his investment. He died in 1831, at the age of 85 years. Margery Dean Canan died in 1815, when she was 55 years old.

Neither this John Canan or his son were from Washington county, but they were definitely from the area.

I haven't had a lot of time to do genealogy this summer, but I hope to look into this more in the future. Regardless of which side of the Whiskey Rebellion our ancestors supported -- if we ever know -- they definitely lived through the heart of it.