WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 96 Today's Topics: #1 Bio- Penn Eyster Dickinson- Huntin [Joan Wyatt ] ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 07:33:01 -0400 From: Joan Wyatt To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <38EF18E7.9D26ED85@uakron.edu> Subject: Bio- Penn Eyster Dickinson- Huntington Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923,The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago & New York, Volume 111 Page 375 Penn Eyster Dickinson- Huntington There are several reasons why Penn Eyster Dickinson, proprietor of the well-known retail furniture establishment of Dickinson Brothers at Huntington, has succeeded in life-- energy, system and practical knowledge all having contributed to this gratifying result. The range of his activities is now extensive, but from the beginning of his career Mr. Dickinson has sought to work steadily and well for ultimate accomplishments, and has never been content to labor merely for the present. Mr. Dickinson was born at Louisa County, Virginia, December 25, 1879, and is a son of Eugene and Kate (Sanders) Dickinson, and a member of a family which originated in England and was transplanted to America during Colonial times, when the first immigrant of the name settled in Virginia. Thaddeus C. Dickinson, the grandfather of Penn E. Dickinson, was born in 1826 in Louisa County, and spent his entire life there as an extensive planter. He was a slaveholder up to the time of the War Between the States, in which struggle he served as a soldier of the Confederacy. He died at Louisa in 1904. His wife, who also spent her entire life in her native Louisa County, was a Miss Fox prior to her marriage. Eugene Dickinson was born in 1855 in Louisa County, and there passed his entire career. In young manhood he became a merchant, but later turned his attention to planting and for many years was an extensive raiser of tobacco. He died in 1909. Mr. Dickinson was a democrat in politics and at one time served as assessor of Louisa County. With his family he belonged to the Baptist Church. He married Miss Kate Sanders, a native of Fluvanna County, Virginia, who survives him and resides on the old homestead in Louisa County, at the age of sixty-three years. They were the parents of the following children: Penn Eyster, of this record; Aubrey, a locomotive engineer for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, residing at Covington, Kentucky; Roy C., a bookkeeper of Richmond, Virginia, who died aged twenty-two at the old home in Louisa County; Eugenia, the wife of John S. Moore, who is engaged in the real estate business at Richmond; Ryland, an extensive farmer of Louisa County; Albert, connected with the Hutchinson Lumber Company at Oraville, California, where he makes his home, and also in partnership with his brother in the firm of Dickinson Brothers; Maurice, assistant manager in the chemical department of a large extract concern of Richmond, and a veteran of the world war, who spent one year on the firing line in France in the hospital and ambulance service; Fritz, connected with the firm of Dickinson Brothers at Huntington; Fred, twin of Fritz, a general merchant of Louisa; Kathleen, a teacher in the public schools, who is unmarried and makes her home with her mother in Louisa County; Bessie May, also unmarried, a teacher in the public school at Ashland, Virginia. Penn Eyster Dickinson was educated in the public schools of the rural district of Louisa County, Virginia, and was reared on his father's plantation until nineteen years of age. In 1898 he located at New Martinsville, Virginia, with the Boxley Construction Company, building the West Virginia Short Line, and after four months of this kind of work came, in September of the same year, to Huntington and entered the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, with which line he learned the trade of machinist, a vocation which he followed for eight years. Mr. Dickinson then recognized his opportunity and embarked in the retail furniture business, with which he has been identified to the present time. In 1915 he organized the firm of Dickinson Brothers in partnership with his brother Albert H. Dickinson, and their enterprise, under full control and management of Penn E. Dickinson, has been developed into one of the leading retail furniture interests in the state of West Virginia, a large, modern well-arranged stock being carried at all times at the company's place of business, 611-13 Fourth Avenue. A man of marked business capacity, Mr. Dickinson's years of orderly and abundant work have resulted in acquired success and the same enjoyment of it, and he has at the same time maintained his interest in securing and preserving the welfare of his community. He has given a strict attention to his business, conducting it in a thoughtful and intelligent manner that could not help but bring about satisfactory results. Mr. Dickinson keeps himself thoroughly posted on public events and matters of general interest, and is highly esteemed as a forceful, substantial man and excellent citizen. In politics he is a democrat, and his religious connections is with the Christian Church, in which he is an elder. He owns a modern home at No. 611 Sixth Avenue, a modern dwelling in a desirable residence district. In 1904, at Huntington, Mr. Dickinson was united in marriage with Miss Beulah Hagan, daughter of Joseph and Barbara (Topp) Hagan, both of whom are now deceased, Mr. Hagan having been formerly engaged in the plumbing business at Huntington. Mrs. Dickinson is a graduate of Marshall College. She and her husband have no children.