Biography: W. T. D. Dalzzel, Caddo Parish La.
Submitted by: Thomas J. Casteel



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W. T. D. DALZELL

As our city continues its growth and development along so many worthwhile
lines, there develops an increasing sense of gratitude for the character of
many of the lives that were built into its foundations. Among them, none
stands out more conspicuously than that of the Reverend W. T. Dickinson
Dalzell, D. D., who for a generation-from 1869 to 1899, was Rector of St.
Mark's Episcopal Church in this city. Many of our older residents recall
the scholarly and dignified appearance of Dr. Dalzell. His bearing was that
of one "to the manor born;" and he was an equally welcome guest in the
cottage of the poor and in the mansion of the more prosperous.

Dr. Dalzell was born in St. Vincent, Jamaica, on the twenty-eighth of June,
1828. his higher education was received in London where he pursued courses
in both theology and medicine. At the age of twenty-three he was ordained
deacon by the Bishop of London and the following year he was advanced to
the priesthood by the Bishop of Jamaica. Dr. Dalzell's first work in the
United States was in Philadelphia, where he was an assistant to the Rev. J.
P. B. Wilmer, Rector of St. Mark's Church in that city, afterwards the
beloved Bishop of Louisiana.

During the dread scourge of yellow fever that visited the city of Norfolk,
Virginia, in 1852, Dr. Dalzell went to that stricken city and rendered
notable service by ministering to the sick and consoling the dying. Again,
under similar circumstances, outstanding service was rendered in the yellow
fever scourge that visited Savannah, Georgia, in 1854. For a number of
years prior to the outbreak of The War Between the States, Dr. Dalzell was
Rector of the Church in Houston, Texas; and during the War he was Chaplain
of a Texas regiment.

In July, 1866, Dr. Dalzell accepted a call to St. Mark's Church,
Shreveport, and remained there until his death in 1899 with the exception
of one year, 1879-which he spent in Memphis, Tenn. Shreveport has never had
a more striking figure than this faithful and heroic priest. Only the older
residents of the city know the terror that an epidemic of yellow fever
could spread abroad among the people. Shreveport was visited by such an
epidemic in 1873. Through all that trying ordeal, Dr. Dalzell remained
faithful and unfaltering at his post. Indeed it was truly said of him that
in times of peril both his virtues and his attainments shone most brightly.
Through the long days and nights of terror and death that stretched their
pall across the quiet, peaceful town in 1873, Dr. Dalzell was to be found
wherever needed, ministering as physician to the body or as priest to the
soul. He never failed to respond to any call made upon him; and it is a
matter of record that he personally ministered to, and carried through that
ordeal, a number of poor people, whose only dependence was his aid.

Five years later, in 1878, when Memphis was visited by a similar scourge,
Dr. Dalzell was one of a group of forty, who went from Shreveport to the
help of that strickened community. The splendid record which he made in
Memphis at that time led to his being called there the following year to a
much larger congregation than the one to which he was ministering in
Shreveport. Dr. Dalzell accepted this call and removed to the larger
center, but before the year was over, his love for St. Mark's was so strong
that it drew him back to Shreveport, where he remained until his death
twenty years later. Here in our midst he spent the greater part of his
mature life; and he asked no richer reward than the friendship and
affection of the people in whose midst he lived. He was easily one of the
most highly educated and broadly cultured citizens that our city has ever
known. He was anxious that as many of our children as possible should have
the blessing of sound learning, and under his wise administration, through
eight years, as President of the Parish School Board the standard of the
schools went forward by leaps and bounds. Dr. Dalzell was a wise leader in
the Councils of the Diocese and personally nominated both Bishop Galleher
and Bishop Sessums to the high office of Bishop of Louisiana. He held the
degree of Doctor of Divinity from the historic See of Canterbury and from
the University of the South. In Masonic circles he was one of the first
authorities in the state on Masonic law and jurisprudence.

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From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry, 1928,
Page 344

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