William Dickey

As printed in 1882

WILLIAM DICKEY, deceased. Among the successful self-made men of Dayton, few were better known or more thoroughly respected than the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this biography. His father, Adam Dickey, was born in county Antrim, Ireland, in the year 1768, where he lived until seventeen years of age, then, with that love of freedom characteristic of his race, he emigrated to America, 'eating in Pennsylvania, where, about 1790, he was married to Mary McKee, and nine years later, with his wife and three children, he started for the West and settled at Fort Washington (now Cincinnati), where he was afterward joined by two of his brothers, who had also left their oppressed fatherland to seek a home in the New World, Here he began the manufacture of brick, making the brick for the first house of that kind erected at that point. He followed brick-making until about 1804, when he removed to near Middletown, Butler County, Ohio, where he engaged largely in billig, farming and distilling, building his own flatboats and shipping the produce to New orleans, following this business until 1828, in which year he died, his wife surviving jm about fifteen years and dying in 1844. Adam Dickey was a very successful bushes man, but, owing to reverses by fire and otherwise, his affairs were crippled to such ii extent as to render him a comparatively poor man previous to his death. The sublet of this sketch was born near Middleton, Butler County, Ohio, August 10, 1805, ad was the seventh in a family of eleven children, of whom only one survives. His cilities for obtaining book learning were exceedingly meager, but, reared upon the soil d injured to hard labor, he acquired, by contact with the world, that practical know- %e which is the indispensable condition of success. Having arrived at his majority, he took a contract for work on the Miami Canal, and of all the contractors on that public work he was the last survivor. He was subsequently engaged, for several years, in a similar capacity on the Ohio Canal. On April 19, 1832, he married Miss Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Van Cleave, of Butler County, and for some years was employed in farming, having a short time previous purchased, in connection with his brother, the homestead of his father. In April, 1839, he became a resident of Dayton, where he engaged respectively in the manufacture of brick, in contracts on the Miami & Erie Canal, and, in connection with his brothers, in quarrying limestone in the vicinity of Dayton. This last industry has since attained great magnitude. For a number of years succeeding, he conducted a line of canal packets between Cincinnati and Toledo and between the latter city and Terre Haute, Ind. During some twenty years of frugal industry, he saved up quite a respectable capital, and in 1850 became a private banker, in company with Joseph Clegg, Esq., and Daniel Beckle, Esq., the latter since deceased. He was subsequently, in connection with the above named gentlemen, one of the organizers of the Miami Valley Bank, of Dayton. He was one of the incorporators of the Dayton Gaslight and Coke Company and for some twenty years its President He was also one of the organizers of the Ohio Insurance Company, in 1865, of which he was President until his death. In 1866, he had the misfortune to lose the sight of his right eye by cataract, and nine years afterward his left eye became similarly affected, so that he was entirely deprived of the power to read and could distinguish his friends only by their voices. Mr. Dickey was a man of sound judgment and thoroughly good sense. Though deprived of the polish that education gives, he was characterized by great kindness of heart, decidedly modest manners and a quiet benevolence that never publishes its deeds to the world. He was distinguished for sterling integrity from his youth to his death. His caution and prudence, combined with the industry of his business life, have rendered his career a gratifying success, so that he ranked amoiij the wealthiest citizens of Dayton. He died July 15, 1880, leaving a wife, son and two daughters. The son, Samuel A., who was President of the gas company and a prominent, coal merchant, died in August following the death of his father. The daughter: are Mrs. Henry C. Graves, of Dayton, and Mrs. Charles B. Oglesby, of Chicago.

As printed in The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; (1882). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.