Dickerman, Charles E. 1834 – 1905

DICKERMAN, FRAKER

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:45

Source: Decorah Republican May 4, 1905 P6 C3

CHARLES E. DICKERMAN.
Died in a Hospital at St. Paul last Week Wednesday.
The Result of an Operation for Hernia from which no Serious Harm was Expected.
The above states in outline an occurrence that was a surprise to all who knew Mr. Dickerman and a sharp shock to all his intimate friends. The details are given in an account of the matter by the St. Paul Pioneer Press of the 27th inst., given below.
Mr. Dickerman was born June 12th, 1834, and came to Decorah in May 1855, just before attaining his majority as a citizen. All the new comers were quite young men, few being up to or beyond twenty-four years. He at once engaged in business as a merchant, at which he exhibited more than usual talent, and soon become known as a financier. One enterprise—the attempt to build a town at Otranto, on the state line in Mitchell county—proved almost a disaster, but he returned to Decorah, and soon recovered, so that by 1870 he was recognized as a capitalist, seeking a wider field of operation than Decorah afforded. This he found in the Twin Cities, and the territory tributary thereto. He became an investor in real estate, a builder of business blocks, mostly in St. Paul; and was widely known as a buyer and seller of bonds of cities, towns, and school districts. He became so much involved in affairs of the northern country that he moved thither, after building a mansion, into which he moved in 1888. The panic of 1893 was a very disastrous one to dealers in real estate, and some of the strongest men in that line went to the wall; but Mr. Dickerman pulled through, and in the end, when all real estate in the Northwest took a boom he must have realized largely from his investments. No estimate of his wealth has been given, but he must have been regarded as a millionaire. The general details of his life subsequent to his removal to St. Paul are told in the following (above referred to) from the Pioneer Press:
Charles E. Dickerman, 183 Nelson avenue, died at 7 o’clock last night at St. Joseph’s hospital following what was supposed to have been a minor operation performed on Tuesday evening. His death was entirely unexpected and was a great shock to his family, who until a short time before his death had supposed that he was rapidly recovering from the shock of the operation.
Mr. Dickerman spent the winter in the south, as has been his custom in recent years. He returned to St. Paul last Thursday slightly indisposed and on the recommendation of his physician went to the hospital Monday evening. The operation was performed Tuesday morning. Mr. Dickerman rallied rapidly and his condition continued to improve almost up to the time of his death. He was visited by his physician yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock, at which time there were no unfavorable symptoms.
An hour or so after this visit Mr. Dickerman began to sink rapidly and his death occurred at 7 o’clock, the physicians being unable to turn the tide which had set in against him.
Mr. Dickerman was one of the best known business men of St. Paul, having been identified with the growth and development of the city since 1870, when he made his first investment here. He had been a resident in St Paul seventeen years, coming here from Decorah, Iowa, but for a number of years prior to locating in the city he had large business interests here. During his career Mr. Dickerman had much to do with the development of St. Paul and the Northwest. Hew as a Paul and the Northwest.{sic} He was a a{sic} number of the larger business blocks in the downtown district. {sentence doesn’t make sense-words must be missing} He had large holdings outside of St. Paul, notably in Montana, the Dakotas, Iowa and Florida. He was prominently identified with the building of Duluth and early acquired valuable holdings in that city.
Mr. Dickerman was born in New Portage Ohio, in 1834. His ancestors on both sides were among the first settlers of the Western Reserve of Ohio, He moved further west in 1855, settling in Decorah. He first visited St. Paul in 1868 and made this city his residence in 1888.
He is survived by four sons and one daughter—Mrs. E. P. Fraker, Charles, K., Walter H. and Arthur E. Dickerman, all of St. Paul, and Gilbert G. Dickerman of Duluth. Mrs. Dickerman died April 30, 1905, at their winter home in the South.

Transcriber’s Note: Find a Grave shows that his wife died in 1904. Find a Grave also shows he is buried in Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul, MN and died April 26, 1905