My Genealogy Hound

Mrs. Caroline (Watson) Dickinson, the widow of William R. Dickinson, is the daughter of Daniel and Rowena (Bartlett) Watson. Her father was born in North Carolina in 1797, and the mother in Missouri in 1802, where they married and lived until 1820, when they crossed over to Fulton County, Ky., and lived there until they died. They had eight children—two boys and six girls. Her mother was a devout Methodist; her father an energetic farmer, and a Democrat, and died in 1865; the mother died in 1869. Mrs. Dickinson was born April 6, 1823, being the first child born in Madrid Bend, Ky. She had fine educational advantages, and spent two years under Mrs. Tevis, the principal of “Science Hill,” at Shelbyville, Ky., for a great many years the largest and best female college in the South. In 1843 she married William R. Dickinson, a native of Missouri. He was a graduate of Cape Girardeau College, of Missouri. He taught school for some time, and his wife was a pupil of his. He then went into the mercantile business at Vicksburg, Miss., but, the firm failing, he took his remnant of the goods, put them on a steamboat, and, going up the river, landed at Mr. Watson’s, where, meeting his old pupil, Miss Caroline Watson, again, their friendship was renewed, and before he left they were married. Soon after they went to Rockport, Ind., and he sold goods there; then returned near his father-in-law’s, and died in 1858. He was both a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and in politics a Whig. Since his death Mrs. Dickinson has been extensively engaged in farming, owning 430 acres of fertile land. Of seven children born to them only three are living: Daniel W., a farmer of Kentucky; Rowena, widow of Dr. Leander Carrigan, of Kentucky; and Lelia, wife of Robert Davis, of Union City. Mrs. Dickinson has been living in the county for fourteen years, and, although a lady, is a good farmer and financier.