Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Traverse Region, historical and descriptive, with illustrations of scenery and portraits and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. pub. H. R. Page & Co., Chicago - 1884 [p. 152] G. W. DICKINSON, sheriff of Emmet County, is a native of Warren, Ohio. He was in the civil war from its beginning until its close. In 1861 he en- listed in Battery E, of the regular army, and was in the service until March, 1865. His rank was lieutenant-colonel. In 1875 he removed to Harbor Springs, and the following year built the Emmet House, which he kept about three years. In 1883 he engaged in the livery business, which he still continues. In the fall of 1880 he was elected sheriff of the county, and re-elected in 1882. He has also held the office of trustee of the village. He has a wife and three daughters. ================================================================================ A History of Northern Michigan and its People. Vol. II Perry Francis Powers, Lewis Publishing Co., - 1912 [863-867] COLONEL GEORGE W. DICKINSON, who has been incumbent of the office of county clerk of Emmet county for nearly a score of years, is one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of this county and he may well be designated one of its pioneers, as he has here maintained his home for nearly half a century, within which he has witnessed and aided materially in the development and upbuilding of this favored section of the state. He has held various offices of public trust and has shown the highest type of civic loyalty, even as his patriotism and loyalty were insistently mani- fested through his long and valiant service as a soldier of the Union in the great conflict through which the integrity of the nation was per- petuated. Through gallant and meritorious service he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and he lived up to the full tension of the weary and sanguinary struggle between the north and the south. He was in active service during practically the entire period of the war and his record as a soldier and officer is one that gives lasting honor to his name. As a broad-minded, progressive and liberal citizen he has ever done his part in furthering those measures and enterprises that have compassed the develop- ment of the fine county in which he has so long maintained his home, and his official headquarters are in the city of Petoskey, which is now the judicial center of Emmet county. He formerly resided in the beautiful little city of Harbor Springs, about ten miles distant from Petoskey, on the shore of the fine Little Traverse bay, and the latter place was originally the county seat. In this history of northern Michigan and its representative citizens there is all of consistency in according a tribute to the honored pioneer whose name initiates this paragraph and whose friends in this section of the state are equal in number to his acquaintances. COLONEL DICKINSON finds a due measure of pride in reverting to the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, and he can well' appreciate the humorous paraphrase of a familiar quotation as offered by HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW in one of his characteristic addresses: "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio." The colonel was born on a farm in Johnson township, Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 5th of October, 1841, and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of the historic old Western Reserve. He is the only son of ELISHA and CAROLINE (BATES) DICKINSON, and of the other two children one died young, the firstborn having been JEANETTE, who is the widow of WEBSTER BEAMAN and who now resides at Cleveland. ELISHA DICKINSON was born in Connecticut and the family, of staunch English lineage, was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history. ELISHA DICKINSON was a son of PHILIP DICKINSON, who likewise was a native of the fine old state of Connecticut, whence he immigrated with his family to the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio in the year 1825; he became one of the pioneer settlers of Trumbull county, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1858, his devoted wife having likewise died in that county. ELISHA DICKINSON was a youth at the time of the family removal to Ohio and he there gained his full quota of experience in connection with the labors and conditions of the pioneer days. He eventually became one of the prosperous agriculturists of Trumbull county and his success was the direct result of his own industry and careful management of his affairs. He was a man of strong mentality and his life was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor, so that he was naturally qualified for leadership in thought and action. He was influential in public affairs of a local order and was called upon to serve in various offices of trust in his home county, where he continued to be actively identified with the great basic industry of agriculture until about a decade before his death, which occurred at the home of his only son, COLONEL DICKINSON, at Harbor Springs, Michigan, on the 3d of November, 1893, at which time he was eighty-three years of age. His loved and devoted wife, a woman of most gentle and gracious personality, preceded him to eternal rest by nearly a decade, as her death occurred in 1884, on the old homestead farm in Trumbull county, Ohio. She was about seventy years of age when she thus passed forward to the "land of the leal," and both she and her husband were zealous members of the Disciple church. In politics ELISHA DICKINSON was originally an oldline Whig, but he transferred his allegiance to the Republican party at the time of its organization and ever afterward continued a stalwart supporter of its cause. He was a staunch abolitionist in the period leading up to the Civil war and during the progress of that conflict he did all in his power to support the cause of the Union. In the pioneer days in Ohio he assisted in the construction of the state road from Warren, Trumbull county, to Erie, Pennsylvania, and he was otherwise prominent in the furthering of measures for the general good of the community. COLONEL DICKINSON was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old home- stead farm on which he was ushered into the world and he continued to assist in its work and management until he heeded the call of higher duty and went forth as a soldier of the Union. In the meanwhile he had duly availed himself of the advantages afforded in the common schools, and thus he laid the foundation for the broad and accurate knowledge which he later gained through self-discipline and varied experiences in connection with the practical activi-ties of life. When it became evident that civil war was to be precipitated upon a divided nation COLONEL DICKINSON, who was at the time not twenty years of age, determined that the Union army should have his services as soon as war was declared. Even before hostilities were instituted, by the attack on old Fort Sumter, he had enlisted in the United States regular army, on the 15th of August, 1860, and he was assigned to Battery E, Third United States Artillery, with which he served until March 5, 1862, when he received his honorable discharge. He forthwith identified himself with the volunteer service, and concerning his military career thereafter the writer of the present article has previously given the following succinct account: "Upon leaving the regular army COLONEL DICKINSON became identified with the recruiting service, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where, on the 15th of October, 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. On the 29th of the following January he was promoted captain, and on the 25th of July, 1864, he received commission as major of this regiment, of which he became lieutenant colonel on the 12th of the following November. His command was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and he took part in many of the important battles of the great internecine conflict, among the more noteworthy being the following named: Bristow Station, Sulphur Springs, Mine Run, Todd's Tavern, Bottom's Bridge, Cold Harbor, St. Mary's Church, Malvern Hill and Weldon Railroad. He was with his regiment during the ever memorable Wilderness campaign and participated in the sanguinary battle of Gettysburg. His fidelity to duty was proverbial and his enthusiasm unflagging, so that he ever held the confidence and high regard of the members of his command and proved a most zealous and able officer. Physical disability compelled his retirement from active service shortly before the close of the war, and he received his honorable discharge, in the city of Washington, D. C., on the 20th of February, 1865." After the close of the war COLONEL DICKINSON continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits in his native county about one year and he then located in Warren, the county seat, where he engaged in the coal business, with which he there continued to be successfully con-cerned until 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Trumbull county, a pre-ferment well indicating the high regard in which he was held in his native county. He retained this office four years and shortly after his retirement therefrom he came to northern Michigan and established his home at Harbor Springs, which was then the judicial center of Emmet county. Here he took up his abode in May, 1875, and in the following year he here erected the Emmet House, which hotel he successfully conducted for several years, after which he was engaged in the livery business for some time. In 1879 COLONEL DICKINSON found again an opportunity to exercise the functions of the shrievalty, as in that year he was elected sheriff of Emmet county. The best voucher for the efficiency and acceptability of his services in this capacity was that given by his election as his own successor, in 1881, and he thus continued incumbent of the office for four consecutive years. After his retirement he gave his attention principally to the management of his livery business until 1894, when he was again accorded distinctive mark of popular confidence and esteem, in his election to the office of county clerk, and by successive re-elections he has continued incumbent of this important position during the long intervening years, which have shown on his part a most scrupulous consideration of the interest of the county and its people, the while his administration has been admirable in every respect, as is emphatically shown by his long retention of office. From the time of attaining to his legal majority COLONEL DICKINSON has been an uncompromising advocate and supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and he cast his first presidential vote for ABRAHAM LINCOLN while he was with his regiment in front of Petersburg, just after the second attack on that Confederate stronghold. He is well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity, has been a zealous worker in behalf of the cause of the "grand old party" and as a citizen has given his co-operation in the furtherance of measures that have tended to advance the general welfare of the community along civic and material lines. He has ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and signifies the same by his membership in I. B. Richardson Post No. 13, Grand Army of the Republic, in Harbor Springs, of which staunch organization he has served several terms as commander. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his affiliations are here briefly noted: Harbor Springs Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons; Emmet Chapter, No. 104, Royal Arch Masons; and Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 36, Knights Templar. He is also a valued member of Petoskey Lodge, No. 629, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership in the local organization of the Knights of Pythias. In the year 1862 was solemnized the marriage of COLONEL DICKINSON to MISS AGNES ELDER, who was born and reared in Trumbull county, Ohio, where her parents established their home in the pioneer days. The wife of his youth remained COLONEL DICKINSON's devoted companion and helpmeet for a period of thirty years but the gracious relations were severed when she was summoned to eternal rest, at Harbor Springs, on the 2d of October, 1893, secure in the affectionate regard of all who had come within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. She was survived by three daughters,- CAROLINE M., who is the wife of WADE B. SMITH, of Petoskey; MARGARET D., who became the wife of WALTER TILLOTSON and who died at her home in Grand Rapids, in 1907; and SUSAN G., who is the wife of DR. HUGH W. DICKEN, a representative physician and surgeon of East Jordon, Charlevoix county. On the 17th of December, 1895, COLONEL DICKINSON contracted a second marriage, by his union with MRS. SARAH M. (HILL) RIGG, widow of the late RICHARD RIGG, of Harbor Springs. MRS. DICKINSON was born in Ohio, and was reared and educated in her native state. She is a woman of gracious personality and is a popular factor in the social activities of her home city. No children have been born of the second marriage. ================================================================================ If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ================================================================================