Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/268

 DICKINSON

DICKINSON

Capt. Richard Dickinson of Saybrook, Conn., an oUicer in the Rf vohitionary army. He was edu- cjite<i at the Lowville academy and at Fairfield seminary, tauglit s<'hool, diil ne\v.s|)aper work, and studied hiw in the oliice of D;'!.jel S. Dickin- son at Bingliamton. N.Y. He was admitted to the bar in ISO.") and practised in Pennsylvania, in Binghamton, N.Y., and in New York city, 1865- 78. He becvime editor and proprietor of the Binghamton. N.Y., liepuhJkan in 1878 and also enj^aged in business enterprises in Binghamton and in Chicago, 111. He was a presidential t'lm-tor in 1897 and was appointed by President McKinley U.S. consul general to Turkey. He was elected a member of the Authors' club, New York, in 18!)7, a trustee of the endowment fund of the Barlow industrial school, Binghamton, N.Y.; a meinlx?r of the executive committee of the New York a.ssociated press in 1892. and a member of the advisory lx)ard of Philadelphia museums in 189G. He was married March 24, 1867, to Bessie Virginia, only daughter of the Hon. Giles W. Hotclikiss. He is the author of: The Children and Other Verses (1889). His poem "The Children " lias Iteen reprinted in over forty different school- books and collections of ver.se.

DICKI.NSON, Daniel Stevens, senator, was born in (joshen. Conn., Sept. 11, 1800. He was iiistrur-ted in the lower branches at a school in (Juilford, N. Y., and acquired a knowledge of Latin and highar mathematics while learning the trade of tailor. After serving his time he taught in district schools, practised surveying, and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1828 and practised in Guilford and subsequently in Bing- liamton, N.Y., which place he made his home. He served in the state legislature as senator from Chenango county, 1837-38, and in 1840 was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for lieuten- ant-governor of the state. He was elected, how- ever, in 1842 and served ex officio as president of the canal board and of the court of errors. In 1844 Governor Brock appointed him a U.S. sena- tor to fdl the vacancy caused by the death of Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, and on the convening of the state legislature in January, 184.5, his appoint- ment was ratified and he was also elected for the succeeding term, ending March 4, 18."il. He served for .several years as chairman of the committee on finance. He was a Hunker Democrat and in the discussion of the question of slavery in the territories was the first to advocate in the U.S. senate. Dec. 13, 1847, the principles known as IKipular .sovereignty as advanced by Isaac Butts in thf Rf>chester Dnihj Advertiser, Feb. 8, 1847, sustained liy Senator I^wis Cass, Dec. 24. 1847, in his Nicholson letter, and by Stephen A. Douglas in the senate Jime 17, 18.m In 18.j2 he received the vote of the Virginia delegation in the Democratic

national convention at Baltimore for President of the United St;ites, and he made a notable speech in which he declined the honor in favor of General Ca.ss. He was apiKiinted collector of the jxirt of New York by President Pierce in 1852, but declined the office after the nomination had been unani- mously confirmed by the senate. He adilressed vast public assemblages in New Y'ork, Pennsylva- nia and the New England states in 1861 in behalf of a vigorous prosecution of the war and the up- holding of the government, and the s;ime jear was elected attorney -general of New York on the Republican ticket by 100,000 majority. President Lincobi ajiixiinted him a commissioner to settle the northwestern boundary question, but he de- clined, as he did a nomination to the bench of the New York court of appeals, made by Governor Fenton. In the Republican national convention of 1864 he received 150 votes as the vice-presiden- tial nominee. President Lincoln made him district attorney for the southern district of New York in 1865 and he served in that capacity during the remainder of his active life. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Hamilton in 1858. See Life and Speeches of Daniel S Dickinson by his brother J, R. Dickinson (2 vols., 1867). He died in New York city, April 12. 1866.

DICKINSON, Donald McDonald, cabmet oflfi- cer, was born in Port Ontario, N.Y.. .Jan. 17, 1846; son of Col. Asa C. and ^linerva (Holmes) Dickin- son; and grandson of Lodewyck Dickinson of Great Barrington, JIass., and of the Rev. Jesseniah Holmes of Pomfret, Conn. His first ancestors in America were Dea- con Nathaniel Dick- inson, who settled in Wethersfield, Conn. , in 1637, and in Had- ley, Mass. , about 1658, and Philemon Dickerson, who came to the same place from London, Eng- land, a few years later and removed in 1672 to Southold, Long Island, N.Y. These two were the founders -

of the Dickerson and aUb^^^^^Oi^-ie^..,,^^^ Dickinson family in

Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. This branch of the family were Presbyterians, while the descendants of Charles Dickin.son, who died in London. England, in 1653, .settled in Virginia and Maryland and were Quakers. His father visited the northwest in 1820. explored the sliores of the great lakes in a birch bark canoe, and in 1848 set- tled his family in St. Clair county, Mich., removing to Detroit in 1852. Donald was prepared for col-