George Dicken
In the following paragraphs is sketched the career and accomplishments of one of Grant County's most prosperous farmer citizens. For every one who has not yet lost hope that the door of opportunity stands open to industry and enterprise, there is encouragement and inspiration in the life work of George Dicken. When he came home from the war he possessed practically nothing and yet in a few years had established an ownership of a good farm and at the present time possesses some of the best farming property in Washington Township, where he is regarded as one of the most substantial citizens.
George Dicken belongs to one of the old families of Grant county. He was born August 23, 1844, on the farm in this county which his father, Richard H. Dicken, had entered from the government in 1838. Richard H. Dicken was born in Scott County, Kentucky, in 1816, and died in 1890. Grandfather Henry Dicken moved from Kentucky to Fayette County, Indiana, in 1821, being one of the earliest settlers in that vicinity, and he died in Wabash County at the good old age of eighty-three years. As the date of his settlement indicates, Richard H. Dicken was one of the pioneers of Grant County, having settled here only seven years after the county organization was completed. The maiden name of his wife was Matilda Cook, who was born in 1816 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and who died in 1891. They reared ten children, whose names are Elmer, deceased; Martha Ann, deceased; Mary Ann, deceased; George; James; Thomas; Nancy A.; Amanda; America and Archie.
As a boy George Dicken was reared in Washington Township, and the first school house he attended in old district number two was built of logs and had the rude and uncomfortable furnishings of the old time school house. Later he attended a better structure, which was of frame construction. His period of youth had not yet come to a close when the war broke out. When he was eighteen years old he enlisted in Company F of the One Hundred and First Indiana Volunteer Infantry, on August 16, 1862. He served until June 24, 1865, a period of nearly three years. The captain of his company was B. F. Williams, and the colonel of the regiment was Col. Thomas Doane of Marion. The regiment belonged to the army which fought most of the time under Gen. George H. Thomas, "the rock of Chickamauga," and at that great battle Mr. Dicken was shot through the left instep on September 19, 1863. He was taken prisoner and spent six months and two days in a rebel prison at Belle Isle, on the James River, and also in Richmond Hospital No. 21 and in the Pemberton's old tobacco plant. On March 22, 1864, he was sent to the lines and on June 1, 1864, was exchanged. He rejoined his regiment and served out his time, being with Sherman on his famous march to the sea. Except for the time he was in prison he never missed a roll call nor failed to stack his gun at the bugle call. He was in many battles and always on duty for fight, and has a record of seventeen major engagements. When the war was over he accompanied the victorious troops to Washington and there passed in front of the reviewing stand in what has been known in history as the "Grand Review."
Returning to Grant County a veteran soldier, he was not content to rest upon his laurels as a soldier. He rigged up a team, rented some land and began farming for himself. He continued as a renter for four years, and in the meantime, in 1868, married Miss Martha A. Creviston, daughter of Daniel and Sarah Ann Creviston, a family which was identified with pioneer history in Grant county, and of whom extended mention is made on other pages of this work. Daniel Creviston moved to Grant County from Darke County, Ohio. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Dicken and wife combined their funds and bought a portion of the land, which now comprises the home farm. By industry and thrifty management they improved and developed the place every year, and soon were on the high road to prosperity. Some years after the first purchase he bought another eighty acres of land, subsequently bought eighty acres more and in 1907 bought fifty-five acres.
It is interesting to review the possessions of Mr. Dicken at the present time. His home farm is located on Huntington Pike in Washington Township in Section nine. The home place comprises one hundred and twenty-six acres, and he is also owner of three other farms. One is a place of fifty-five acres, the last purchase, located in Section ten. He also owns eighty acres, half situate din Section two and half in Section three, which was entered by his father, Richard H. Dicken, in 1848. The third farm comprises eighty-eight acres of land in section three, bringing up his aggregate acreage to three hundred and forty. He has some timberland on these places, but it is all fenced and in blue grass pastures. Otherwise the land is all in cultivation. With the exception of fifty-five acres, there are good orchards on all the farms, and all the places with the same exceptions have excellent improvements , good buildings and fences.
Mr. Dicken is an agriculturist who believes in conserving the resources of the soil, and his land is really better now than when he first obtained it. On his home farm he has a beautiful residence of nine rooms, which he built in the fall of 1870. He has also erected a good barn, a sheep house, a smoke house, chicken houses and owns his own gas plant and power house. He heats the house with natural gas from the well,. situated on his own place, and altogether on the two eighty-acre farms he ahs six other gas wells. From some of the wells he sells a considerable quantity of oil. One eighty acre farm is rented, and most of the rest he farms on shares. To show what Grant County farms will produce, the following statistics of his share of the crops from the rest of the land are appended. in 1912 he had sixteen hundred bushels of wheat, twenty-five tons of hay, three thousand bushels of corn, twenty-four hundred bushels of oats, all of which he fed to his stock, and which represents a most gratifying farm of industrial wealth. Mr. Dicken has two hundred and fourteen head of stock on his farm, cattle, horses, sheep and hogs. He ahs one hundred and fourteen head of hogs of the Chester breed, eight Percheron horses, twenty-five head of Polled Angus Cattle, and seventy one head of sheep and lamb.
The three children of Mr. Dicken and wife are: Burr W., a farmer, in Abash County; Mrs. Cora D. White, who lived on a farm three and a half miles east of the home place; and Mrs. Maud B. Morehead, whose residence is two miles east of the home farm. Mr. Dicken has six grandchildren. In politics he is a Republican, having always supported that party from the time he cast his first vote during the war, and is a member of General Sherman's Post, G. A. R., at Marion. His religious affiliation is with the Christian Church.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.