director of Princeton theological seminary, and president of the board in 1858-'78.
DICKEY, John McElroy, clergyman, b. in
York district, S. C., 16 Dec, 1789; d. near New
Washington, Ind., 21 Nov.. 1849. He removed
with his parents to Livingston county, Ky., in 1803,
and, with a view to becoming a minister, studied
the classics with his cousin, a clergyman, in the
neighborhood, and afterward at Hardin Creek,
where he was taken into the family of a person
whose name of McElroy he adopted, out of grati-
tude, as a part of his own. After studying theolo-
gy, he was licensed to preach in August, 1814, and
removed to the territory of Indiana, being the
third Presbyterian minister that had settled there.
His church was at the forks of White river, near
what is now Washington, Daviess co. In the fol-
lowing spring he went for his wife and house-
hold goods, and in 1819 removed to the vicinity of
Lexington, Scott co., to take charge of Pisgah
and Lexington churches, of the latter of which he
was pastor till 1835, and of the former till within
two years of his death. He went on missionary
tours, organized many new churches in Indiana,
and his connection with the beginnings of the
Presbyterian church in that territory caused him
to be widely known in his denomination. He pub-
lished a " History of the Presbyterian Church in
Indiana" (1828). and was preparing a continuation
of it at the time of his death.
DICKEY, Robert Barry, Canadian jurist, b.
in Amherst, Nova Scotia, 10 Nov., 181 1. He studied
law with Judge Stewart, of the vice-admiralty
court, and was admitted to the bar in 1884. He
was a Judge and registrar of the probate court for
many years, was a director of the Nova Scotia
Electric Telegraph company,and was consular agent
for the United States at Amherst, N. S., from
1848 till 1858. He was a delegate from the Nova
Scotia government to Great Britain on the subject
of the Intercolonial railway in 1858, and to the
Quebec union conference in 1864, and a member of
the legislative council of Nova Scotia in 1858-'67,
when he was called to the Dominion senate.
DICKEY, Theophilus Lyle, jurist, b. near
Paris, Ky., 12 Nov., 1812 ; d. in Atlantic City, N. J.,
22 July, 1885. He read law in his native state, re-
moved to Ohio, liberated the slaves that he had
inherited, and afterward established himself in
practice in Illinois. During the Mexican war he
served as a captain in Col. Hardin's regiment, and
in the civil war he was colonel of the 11th Illinois
cavalry, and served for two years under Gen. Grant,
on whose staff he served for some months as chief
of cavalry. From 30 July, 1868, till the close of
President Johnson's administration he was assist-
ant attorney-general of the United States. From
1876 till his death he was judge of the Illinois
supreme court. See Gen. Jas. Grant Wilson's
" Sketches of Illinois Officers " (Chicago, 1863).
DICKINS, John, clergyman, b. in London,
England, 24 Aug., 1747; d. in Philadelphia, Pa.,
27 Sept., 1798. He i-eceived a good education,
partly at Eton, and came to this country before
the Revolution. He united with the Methodist
church in Virginia in 1774, and in 1776 preached
there as an evangelist, was admitted into the itiner-
ant ministry in 1777, and labored in North Carolina.
In 1780 he suggested to his intimate friend. Bishop
Asbury, the plan of Cokesbury college. New
Abingdon, Md., the first Methodist academic in-
stitution in this country. He was in New York
city in 1783-"5 and 1786-'9, and in 1789 removed
to Philadelphia, where he published a Methodist
hymn-book, printing a large part of it with his
own hands. Shortly afterward the conference as-
sumed tiie publication, and appointed him book-
steward, and in this office he founded the Metho-
dist book concern. He issued the "Arminian
Magazine " in Philadelphia in 1789-'90, and the
"Methodist Magazine " from 1797 till his death.
Mr. Dickins was the first American preacher to re-
ceive Thomas Coke and approve his scheme for
organizing the Methodist denomination. Pie was
a member of the " Christmas conference " of 1784,
and suggested the name " Methodist Episcopal
Church," which it adopted. During the yellow-
fever epidemics of 1793, 1797, and 1798, he re-
mained at his post in Philadelphia, and in the last
year fell a victim to the disease. Mr. Dickins was
a powerful preacher and one of the best scholars of
his church at the time of his ministry. A sermon
in his memory was delivered by the Rev. Ezekiel
Cooper and afterward published (Philadelphia,
1799). See also John Atkinson's " Centennial His-
tory of American Methodism " (New York, 1884). —
His son, Asbury, secretary of the U S. senate, b.
in North Carolina, 29 July, 1780 ; d. in Washington,
23 Oct., 1861, passed his early life in Philadelphia,
and afterward spent several years in Europe. In
1801 he was associated with Joseph Dennie in
founding the "Port Folio" at Philadelphia. He
was a clerk in the treasury department under
Secretary Crawford from 1816 till 1833, and while
there composed and read Secretary Crawford's suc-
cessful vindication of himself against the charges
preferred by Ninian Edwards, then minister to
Mexico. He was chief clerk of the state depart-
ment in 1833-'6, and became secretary of the
United States senate in 1886, an office that he re-
tained until 1861. He published an oration on
Washington (Pliiladelphia, 1800; New York. 1825).
DICKINSON, Alfred Elijah, clergyman, b. in
Orange county, Va., 3 Dec, 1830. He was edu-
cated at Richmond college and the University of
Virginia, and became pastor of the Baptist church
in Charlottesville. He subsequently spent several
years in promoting Sunday-school and colportage
work, and then became pastor of the Leigh street
Baptist church, Richmond, Va. Still later he as-
sociated himself with the Rev. Dr. Jeter as joint
owner and editor of the " Religious Herald," and
since the death of Dr. Jeter has been editor-in-
chief of that journal, whose circulation and influ-
ence he has greatly extended. He has received the
degree of D. D. from Furman imiversity.
DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, orator, b. in
Philadelphia, Pa., 28 Oct., 1842. Her father died
when she was two years old, leaving her in poverty,
and she was educated in the free schools of the so-
ciety of Friends, of which her parents were mem-
bers. Her early days were a continuous struggle
against adverse circumstances, but she read eagerly,
devoting all her earnings to the purchase of books.
She wrote an article on slavery for the " Liberator "
when only fourteen years old, and made her first
appearance as a public speaker in 1857, at meetings
for discussion held by a body calling themselves
" Progressive Friends," chiefly interested in the
anti-slavery movement. A sneering and insolent
tirade against women, by a person prominent at
these meetings, called from the spirited girl a with-
ering reply, her maiden speech. From this time
she spoke frequently, chiefly on temperance and
slavery. She taught school in Berks county. Pa.,
in 1859-'0O, and was emploj^ed in the U. S. mint
in Philadelphia from April to December, 1861, but
was dismissed for saying, in a speech in West
Chester, that the battle of Ball's Bluff " was lost, not
through ignorance and incompetence, but through
