Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Davidson Dickson

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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Davidson Dickson was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1821, and is a 
son of John and Sarah (Shields) Dickson, and of English and Irish 
descent, respectively. The father was born in Franklin County, Penn., 
in 1756; in 1798 removed to Washington County, and in 1800 went to 
Trumbull County, Ohio, where he died in 1826, He was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary War, and assisted in capturing the Hessians at the 
battle of Trenton. In connection with farming he engaged in 
merchandising. His third wife was the mother of our subject. [p.1142] 
Her birth occurred in Pennsylvania about 1792, her death in 1850, and 
she was the mother of nine children, of whom Davidson was the sixth. 
He lost his father when fifteen years old, but continued to make his 
home with his mother until nineteen years of age. Having received a 
good common-school education. at the age of twenty-one he taught 
school two terms, and subsequently clerked in a store at Poland three 
years. He afterward made a trip through the Southern States, and April 
25, 1844 came to Van Buren, where he established a grocery store, and 
engaged in business until 1846. In that year the Whigs elected him 
surveyor of Crawford County, and the following term he was re-elected. 
From 1850 until 1853 he served as deputy surveyor. In 1874 he was 
again elected surveyor, and has received the re-election each 
succeeding term. He has one of the best surveying outfits and the most 
copious field notes of any survey or in Northwestern Arkansas, and 
fills the position with the utmost efficiency. He is the author of the 
map of Crawford County, which is skillfully done and finely executed. 
During the war Mr. Dickson served in the Confederate commissary 
department, his station being in Van Buren. In 1864 he began to clerk 
for C. C. Powell in his general store, and in 1866 he became a 
partner, but a year later resumed clerking. In 1851 he married 
Elizabeth Newland, who was born in Monroe County, Tenn., in 1829. This 
union has been blessed with five children: George (born April 12, 
1852, died August 19, 1853), Albert (born April 5, 1855. in Union 
County, Oreg., and a saddler by trade), Belle Dora (born April 6, 
1857, died January 12, 1880), Charles (born June 3, 1863, died 
February 12. 1883), and Homer (born October 3, 1870, and was drowned 
in the Arkansas River May 12, 1880). Mr. and Mrs. Dickson are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the former is a Master 
Mason.