Daviess County MO Archives History .....DICKERSON FAMILY OF DAVIESS COUNTY 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:45 pm

THE DICKERSON FAMILY OF DAVIESS COUNTY
	Narrator:  Mrs. Sarah Patton Dickerson, 74, of Kidder

     Mrs. Dickerson was born 1860 in Illinois.  The family of her father Wm. 
Patton moved 1863 to Buchanan county near St. Joseph Missouri, thus her life 
was lacking in the pioneer experiences which most women of her age knew.  Her 
mother's maiden name was Cassie Turnipseed.
     Her husband was Thomas Cole Dickerson, named for a M.E. preacher popular 
in his childhood, Thomas Cole.  The Patton and Dickerson families made several 
moves, from "St. Jo" to a Rochester Mo. farm, then to Cameron then to St. 
Joseph, and finally Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson moved two and a half miles north of 
Kidder in the Bacon neighborhood, the Lone Star school District in the early 
80s.
     The Dickersons had 5 children:  Minnie who married 1) Lewis Vallandingham 
who died of tuberculosis and 2) Ollie Howard grocer of Hamilton; Carrie 
married Walter Bacon and had three children 1) Pearl Mae who married Dale 
Haynie, 2) Alva, 3) Howard.  Jessie married Dave Alexander of Washington 
state.  Bessie her twin is unmarried.  Verna married Tiffin Nash who died in 
the World War in Camp, and her second husband was Randle who is also dead.
     Mrs. Dickerson recalls many of the interesting characters in her Daviess 
county home in the Bacon neighborhood.  She recalls the elderly Ira Bacon.  
(You will note that her daughter Carrie married into the Bacon family.)  The 
circumstances of his death were peculiar.  He went out to feed the sheep.  He 
was gone too long and the family went out to investigate.  He lay dead behind 
the barn.  The organ and chairs were moved out there.  He was buried in the 
Benson cemetery (sometimes called the Bacon graveyard, because so many Bacons 
are there).
     Both Mrs. Dickerson and Mrs. Howard, her daughter, remembered him as 
extremely saint like in appearance with his long white beard and gentle face.  
He had these children who grew up:  Irvin, Jason, Boone, Elizabeth (Sweany), 
Faith (Conrad).
     Another interesting character near by was Daniel P. Doll.  He died 82 
years old 1917.  He and his wife Sebrina Givens Doll were both very ill at the 
same time.  Sebrina died March 17 and he died a week later, without knowing of 
her death.  He was a forty-niner.
     The Mullins and the McMurtry families were also neighbors of the 
Dickersons.  Mrs. Caroline Mullins (wife of Lewis) was formerly the wife of 
Mr. McMurtry and the mother of the late Dr. McMurtry, beloved Kidder 
physician.  John McMurtry (1820-1880) was one of the oldest settlers in 
Daviess county.
     The Castor families other neighbors, were early Daviess county settlers.  
Mrs. Dickerson recalls how Aunt Lizy Castor (wife of John) every year used to 
knit wool socks for Mr. Dickerson, two pairs for one dollar.  He always 
claimed no one else could fit his feet but Aunt Lizy.  She dyed the wool brown 
with walnut stain, and he took 6 pair a year.
     Many of the old names known in that neighborhood are now gone.  The 
families have died off, or moved away.  The Bellamy and the Revert families 
went to Oklahoma.  The Rhoades family is gone, Wm. Rhoades married a sister of 
Mrs. Dickerson and they went to Okla.  when the Strip was opened.
     Another incident of those earlier days was brought to mind by the recent 
death of Mrs. Charley Hawks.  She was a Copeland by birth.  Her first husband 
was __ Saxton, 2) John McMurtry, 3) William (Bill) Austin and 4) Chas. Hawks.  
Mr. Dickerson a neighbor, shaved the first two husbands of Mrs. Hawks after 
their deaths, that being part of a good neighbor's duties in 
death.                           Interview  January 1935.



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