Alvin Dickerson
No other merchant or business man now operating in Upland was in business there when Alvin Dickerson started, and he is not only the oldest established merchant, but foremost in everything that concerns the advancement and prosperity of that flourishing little community. With good natural endowments, he has had a thorough training, and his success in business is based upon the solid foundation of accomplishment and experience.
Alvin Dickerson was born in Delaware County, Indiana, on a farm, January 17, 1865, and belongs to one of the old families of eastern Indiana. His grandfather, Richard Dickerson, came from Ohio to Indiana in the year 1836, and entered land direct from the government in Washington Township of Delaware County. In order to pay his fees and take out his patent, he had to go to the Fort Wayne land office. On the land thus acquired he lived and labored until he had made an excellent home, his estate comprising eighty acres, and he was one of the interesting early settlers of that community. When to following his regular vocation as a farmer, during the early years he did a great deal of teaming for Cincinnati merchants, hauling merchandise from the Ohio City to different points in eastern Indiana. That was of course years before the first railroad was built into this section, and the Overland Trail from Cincinnati northwest was the most frequented highway of transportation and nearly every merchant got his goods by that route, and the farmers sent their produce to market largely the same way. Richard Dickerson died before the Civil war and was fifty-six years of age at the time. During his residence in Ohio he married a Miss Hart and she died in Delaware County about the same time as her husband and about the same age. They became the parents of three sons and six daughters. The only one now living is R. Huston, living in Fowlerton, grant county. Another son was Joshua. John Dickerson, father of the Upland merchant, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, June 26, 1831, and died August 28, 1913, when past eighty-two years of age. His death occurred at Upland. On the old homestead in Delaware County he spent his youth and when ready to make his first independent venture bought forty acres of wild land in the same vicinity. That continued to be his home until the fall of 1865, when he moved over into grant county, and bought one hundred acres in Section six of Jefferson Township. After many years of prosperous farming activity he moved in 1900 to Upland, which village remained his home until his death. His widow still lives in the village. Her maiden name was Mary Hollis and she was born in Jefferson Township in 1838, a daughter of William Hollis, who came from his native Ohio to Grant county and entered land in Jefferson Township, getting his patent with the signature of Martin Van Buren, then President of the United States. There he lived amid the changing scenes which marked the progress of the country from pioneer stage into the modern times, and died on the land which his labors had converted into a productive farm, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was three times married, and Mrs. John Dickerson was the child of his first wife. John Dickerson voted the Democratic ticket, and he and his wife had no church affiliations. Of their five children, four were daughters, and three of them are married and living in Grant County with families of their own. One daughter, Luna, is very successful as a teacher, and has for several years filled a responsible position in the government educational system in the Philippine Islands.
Alvin Dickerson grew up in Grant County, attended the district schools of his neighborhood, and later was sent to the State Normal where he studied and qualified himself for the work of teaching which was his regular occupation for eight years. His first school he taught was at the age of nineteen. In January, 1892, Mr. Dickerson came to Upland and contributed his resources of capital and enterprise to the little community then existing there. From the start on a modest scale he has been increasingly successful and his large general store is now located in the center of the village on Main Street and supplies everything needed by the people of this locality. Mr. Dickerson also owns a comfortable home in the village and a farm of thirty-two acres in Jefferson Township.
Mr. Dickerson is a Prohibition voter in political affairs. He was married in his home township to Miss Jennie Walker, who was born and reared and educated in Jefferson Township, a daughter of William C. and Sarah Walker, concerning whom further information will be found elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Dickerson was for several years preceding her marriage a successful and popular teacher in Grant County. To their marriage have been born two children: Cloyd, now twenty years of age, in his freshman year at Purdue University; Geneva, aged nineteen, graduated in the same class with her brother from the high school in 1912, and now lives at home and is a student of music. Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson have membership in the Presbyterian Church.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.