Chester L. Dickinson, (Dr.)

ACKLEY, DICKINSON, ROBY

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/13/2004 at 01:07:41

Dr. Chester L. Dickinson, a well known retired physician of Winterset, was born near Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the 30th of March, 1849, a son of Morgan L. and Balinda (Ackley) Dickinson, both natives of Pulaski, New York, where their marriage was solemnized. They became residents of Indiana in an early day in the history of the state and the father farmed there until his demise, which occurred in 1853. The mother subsequently came to Iowa and was residing in Ringgold county when she passed away at the age of eighty years.

Dr. Dickinson was the youngest in a family of five children and passed his boyhood days upon the home farm. On the 27th of March, 1864, he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Michigan Heavy Artillery, at Coldwater, Michigan, and as a private served until the close of the war, being discharged on the 9th of September, 1865, in Detroit, Michigan. He was in the Department of the Gulf and participated in twenty-three engagements, including Hudson, Vicksburg, New Orleans and Fort Gaines. Although often in the thickest of the fight he was never wounded nor taken prisoner. During part of his enlistment he was on detached service as nurse in a hospital at New Orleans. He lacked a few days of being fifteen years of age when he enlisted but gave his age as eighteen and wrote over eighteen on a slip of paper which he placed in his shoe, and as he was quite large for his age he was accepted.

After the close of the war Dr. Dickinson went to Steuben county, Indiana, and continued his interrupted education, becoming a student in the public schools. He later entered the Northeastern Indiana Institute and after leaving that institution received his medical education in what is now De Pauw University at Greencastle, Indiana, which was then known as Asbury University, remaining there for two and a half years. While attending school he alternated his study with the work of teaching, thus acquiring the funds to pursue his education. In all he taught seven or eight terms in Indiana, proving very successful in that profession. After leaving school he spent two years at Orland, Indiana, and then came to Iowa, taking a commercial course at Ottumwa. He next located in Des Moines, where he practiced for four years, after which he removed to Winterset, where he followed his profession for two years. He then removed to Macksberg and became known as an able practitioner of that town. In 1903 lll-health forced him to retire and he has since lived in Winterset.

On the 22d of March, 1885, Dr. Dickinson married Miss Fannie V. Roby, a native of this county, who passed away on the 24th of December, 1904, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which she was a member. Dr. and Mrs. Dickinson became the parents of four children: Ora R., who was run over by a train when twenty years of age; Louis L., who graduated from the Shenandoah (la.) College and is now upon a ranch near Miles City, Montana; Flossie M., who is with her brother Louis L.; and Mamie A., who died in 1912 when fourteen years old.

The Doctor is a republican but has never desired to hold office, believing that his professional work should receive his entire attention. He is a prominent member of the local Methodist Episcopal church and has been very active in the work of that organization, especially in the Sunday school. He was secretary of the first Sunday-school convention held in this county, in 1874 or 1875, and has had much to do with the subsequent organization and development of Sunday-school work here. He is a member of Pitzer Post, No. 55, G. A. R.; has always taken a great interest in that organization and has held various offices in the same. At the state encampment held at Des Moines in 1913 he was the youngest of the eight thousand veterans present. While in active practice he was recognized as a well equipped and successful physician, and his many patients had full confidence in his ability, as did his colleagues in the profession as well.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”