California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 SAMUEL FRANCIS DICKENSON. The pioneer experiences of the past years of California have formed a large part of the life of Samuel Francis Dickenson, an esteemed resident of Fresno county, being located on a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres in the vicinity of Conejo. He was born in Jackson county, Mo., March 13, 1837, a son of Gallant D. Dickenson, who was born in Tennessee and reared in Virginia. In young manhood he returned to Tennessee, where he was married in 1828, and in 1832 located in Jackson county, Mo., and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Deciding to become a pioneer in the more remote west, he came to California in 1846, crossing the plains by means of ox-teams. They left Missouri in April and arrived in California in September. Mr. Dickenson located in Monterey, where he engaged in the lumber business, the following year making the first brick ever made in California, which was used in the construction of the Dickenson home, which is still standing in Monterey. In June, 1848, Mr. Dickenson went to the Dry Diggings, now Coloma, Cal, and mined until Octo- ber of the same year, when he engaged in mining at Mokelumne Hill. The following year he lo- cated in Stockton, San Joaquin county, where he purchased property and engaged in real estate operations, the renting of property and loaning of money, having brought away with him from Mokelumne Hill five hundred pounds of gold. In 185 1 he removed to Tuolumne river, at Dick- enson ferry, which was .named for him, and there followed farming until his death in 1869, at the age of sixty-three years. His wife, formerly Isabelle McCreary, a native of Tennessee, died in San Jose in 1877. They were the parents of four sons and two daughters, of whom Samuel Francis Dickenson was the fifth in order of birth. A rather limited education was received by Samuel F. Dickenson through an attendance of the common schools in the vicinity of his home, after which he engaged in the raising of stock, locating in 1856 in the vicinity of Snelling, Merced county. He engaged in loaning money an3 speculating until 1868, when, on account of the dry weather, he removed to the mountains with some stock he owned, the greater portion of which he lost. On his return to the San Joaquin valley he found employment on various ranches for nine months, after which he engaged in the cattle business with a partner, J. T. Stockard. Two years later he sold out with a profit of $40,000. With the proceeds he bought the Bearfield farm of four hundred acres on the Merced river, but the death o-f his partner induced him to dispose of his interests to the widow. He then loaned his money for a time, and about 1871 purchased nineteen hundred and twenty acres on Mariposa creek, twenty miles east of the city of Merced, where he engaged in sheep raising and farming until 1883. He disposed of this property, but continued to follow the sheep business while he made his home in Merced. In 1885 he located in Fresno county, purchasing his present property, which consists of one hundred and sixty acres, where he carries on prin- cipally the interests of an extensive dairy. He is interested in the Co-operative Creamery and takes a keen interest in all that tends toward the development of the country. In Sacramento. March 24, 1870, Mr. Dickenson was united in marriage with Laura Burton, who was born in Missouri October 20, 1848. Her father. Major Charles Burton (who won his title during the Indian wars), was a native of Virginia and removed to Kentucky and thence to Missouri, in the vicinity of Paris engaging in farming and stock-raising. In 1854 he crossed the plains with ox-teams, and in the same year returned to Missouri. Five years later he drove cattle to California and upon his safe arrival located in Sacramento county, where his death occurred. His wife, formerly Lucy Nelson, was a native of Virginia and a direct descendant of Thomas Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. She also died in Sacramento county. Mr. and Mrs. Dickenson have one son, Clarence F., who was born March 12, 1871. He was educated in the medical department of the University of California, from which he was graduated in 1894, with the degree of M. D. He has since become a surgeon of prominence, in 1900 accepting the position of assistant surgeon and being sent to the Philippine Islands. He is now at home on a leave of absence. He also went to the Kodiak Islands, Alaska, for the Alaska Commercial Company as surgeon, on the C. G. White schooner, was wrecked off Wood island. Alaska, in a freezing gale, in April, 1895, and the members of the crew were frozen nine days before they were rescued. Without the necessary instruments for the work. Dr. Dickenson was compelled to use such as could be manufactured for him by a blacksmith, amputating limbs, etc. Out of the eleven he lost but one man, the papers recounting vividly the heroism as well as the skill of the brave surgeon. Mr. Dickenson is associated fraternally with the Ma- sons, being a member of Merced Lodge, F. & A. M.. of Merced, and Merced Chapter No. 12, R. A. M., of the same place. Politically he is a Democrat.