My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL G. DICKMAN is one of the oldest settlers in Kearney county, now living on the old Fort Kearney reservation. He was born May 4, 1833, in Cambridge, Mass. His father, Joseph S. G. Dickman, a rope-maker by occupation, and also a native of Massachusetts, was born November 30, 1793. He served in the War of 1812 in Isaac Story’s company of light infantry in defense of Marblehead. He was a resident of Cambridge, Mass., for fifty-five years and a member of the Masonic order, Mt. Lebanon Lodge, No. 5815. He died May 29, 1878, at the ripe old age of eighty-six years. The mother of our subject, Mary (Deacons) Dickman, was a native of Marblehead, Mass., born in the year 1788, and died August 17, 1871. There were six children in the family — three boys and three girls, of whom the eldest son and brother of our subject served in the War of the Rebellion. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Dickman, was of English descent, but it is not known to a certainty whether he was born in this country or in England. He was a jeweler by occupation.

Samuel G. Dickman, our subject, resided at home with his father until his marriage at the age of twenty-seven years. In the meantime he attended the Cambridge public schools and at the age of thirteen years began work in the rope factory. He afterwards drove stage on the line from Boston to Cambridge and still later filled the capacity of street car driver. This he followed until the spring of 1866, when he emigrated West and located in Eureka, Woodford county, Ill., where he resided ten years, and was engaged in farming. He again emigrated West, and June 15, 1876, landed in Kearney county, Nebr., and located on his present site. The reservation, consisting of ten miles square, had not at that time been surveyed and opened to settlement. The country was new and wild, and antelope and deer were roaming about in herds. There was an occasional settler, or squatter, as they were termed in those days, but they were few and far between. He at once began the construction of a sod house and soon had his family in comfortable quarters. He broke out eight acres of raw prairie that season and attemped to raise some buckwheat and a few potatoes. His meager crops flourished for a time, but the grasshoppers, which thronged the country in great abundance that year, totally destroyed them. As a result he saw hard times the following winter and was compelled for the most part to live on corn meal. He worked one winter for fifty cents a day and board, while his wife and son built a sod barn. The heavy driving rains of that period, unlike the gentle showers of to-day, played havoc with the sod house, and frequently after a heavy rain storm there would be from three to four inches of mud on the ground floor. On a cold, blustery winter’s night in 1877 the snow drifted through the cracks in the sod shanty until everything was covered, and they were compelled to hold the umbrella over their faces in bed. When Mr. Dickman landed on the reservation he had but one team and fifty-nine dollars in money, but he has labored assiduously and now has one of the best improved farms in Newark township.

He married, September 17, 1860, Ellen S. March, who was born at Bangor, Me., August 3, 1841, and is the adopted daughter of James and Mary March, her real parents having died with cholera when she was but four years old. This happy union has resulted in the birth of seven children, two only of whom are living, as follows — Joseph S., born October 29, 1861; Charles E., born August 28, 1865 and deceased September 27, 1865; Mary E., born March 6, 1868; Edith W., born July 23, 1869, deceased August 31, 1869; Bertie L., born July 8, 1870, died August 6, 1870; Lena B., born May 12, 1874, died September 12, 1784; Willie F., born April 21, 1878, died July 10, 1878. Joseph, the oldest son, served in the capacity of deputy county clerk for three years, and in 1885 was elected clerk, which office he has held for four years. He is also a member of the Masonic order at Minden. Mr. and Mrs. Dickman are consistent christians and members of the Baptist church; politically, Mr. Dickman is a republican.