Hiram Dickerson - Son of William Smith Dickerson and soldier for the Confederacy

(Family lineage: Hiram C. Dickerson  ¹, William Vincent Dickerson  ²,Queen Rebecca Dickerson  ³,

 Edna Bethel Franklin  ⁴, Judith Ann Hayward  ⁵ )

1833 – 1918

One of the most popular posts in my blog to date featured William Smith Dickerson. There is no doubt that he was a very interesting man and – like us all – a walking, talking contradiction during his lifetime. One of his most puzzling actions was filing for divorce from Elizabeth (aka Betsey) Martin, his wife of 8 years.  Oh, how I'd love to know what led to that decision which was an uncommon occurrence in those days!  What is documented is that Betsey was pregnant with their fourth child, Hiram, when the divorce was finalized in 1832 and that William was able to build a whole new life and career in Kentucky and Missouri with his second wife, Mary Cooper. 

The child Betsey was carrying when her life changed forever was Hiram who, at age 21, married his 18 year old sweetheart, Rebecca Osburn.  There were already 4 children in the family when 28 year old Hiram enlisted as a private in Ferguson's Battalion in the 16th Cavalry of Virginia and served under Captain Hurston Spurlock for three years. 

Based on existing records of his service during the war, there is no doubt that Hiram was involved in "The Battle of Murder Hollow”.  The story of this battle has been passed down by local mountain folk over the years.  Even as late as 1945 there were reports that whenever water in the neighborhood school's well became undrinkable, the children would refuse to go the short distance to Murder Hollow for water because they "knew" that it was "haunted by the ghosts of men who had been killed there, their bodies frozen to the ground - and the spring running red with blood."

The story of Murder Hollow might have been forgotten if a Wayne County attorney and historian, Stephen Lewis, hadn't discovered it in Jack L. Dickinson's "16th Virginia Cavalry" book and submitted it to the "Wayne County News".  The resulting article was printed in the "Out of the Past" column, and is paraphrased below:

"By the end of 1863, the war was going badly for the South and much of what is now West Virginia was no longer part of 'Mother Virginia' , but was firmly in the hands of the enemy. Most of the people in the southern two thirds of the county were sympathetic to the southern cause, especially because most had  family members and friends involved in the fight. 

In January, 1864, Colonel Milton Ferguson (a relative of the Dickersons) brought a large segment of his regiment to Wayne County.  However, unlike other winter visits, this time the Confederates were there in force with approximately 150 armed, experienced cavalrymen.  The camp was set up quite a distance  from the main roads in order to be protected from the eyes of  spies and sympathizers,  

The weather was incredibly harsh, which made it close to impossible for the wagons and cannon to be moved. and plans for major battles, of necessity, had to be put on hold.  All this led to a lull in the fighting for awhile.  Although it was a frustrating and uncomfortable environment  for the Union soldiers, the weather did provide an opportunity for the  Confederate soldiers to take turns slipping back to their homes to visit their families, restock supplies, rest and get ready for upcoming battles.

Colonel Ferguson
 prided himself on his beard

However, on New Years Day, before settling his troops for the winter,  Colonel Ferguson and some of  his troops had ventured across the Big Sandy River on the ice and attacked a small encampment of Federals. Looking at it through the lens of history, this was not a real good idea.  But it probably seemed insignificant to the participants at the time since casualties were light,and the fight was of short duration.  What it did do was to alert the Federals that the Confederates were in force in Wayne County - so the search began. 

After a number of skirmishes, the Union Army with 275 men and the Kentucky Infantry, including mounted soldiers, marched directly to the Confederate camp on February 14, 1864. Of course it was always suspected that an informant had discovered the camp's location and passed it on to the Federals, who traveled at night so as to not alert the local people.

The sleeping Confederates were attacked at daybreak. The fighting was brief and 42 were captured, including Col. Ferguson. Both he and Captain Spurlock, who had been captured previously, spent  the remainder of the war in various prisoner-of-war camps. At least three of the dead Confederates were buried at the head of Murder Hollow and the outline of their graves is still distinguishable. The other casualties were likely buried in their family cemeteries. 

The irony of all this is that the 16^th Virginia Cavalry, which had seen action at Gettysburg and on a number of other well known battlefields, suffered its greatest number of casualties just a few miles from their homes - while protecting those they loved."
  
It does make you wonder if  the legends might be true and the "Ghosts of Murder Hollow" really do haunt the hollow and make the water run "red like blood!

Hiram's granddaughter, Queen Dickerson Franklin, related a story told to her by her grandfather.   He said that when he was given the opportunity to lead some men on a reconnoitering mission, he had felt very brave and hoped they would run into some Union boys. He wanted to fight! That was until after leading his men up a hill, he looked down below and saw what - to his frightened eyes -  looked like the entire Union army camped there!! What did he do then?   Hiram told her: “I did lead my men – right back down that hill!”.  It's good to know he was human too.

When the war was finally over, Hiram and Rebecca had six more children - making a total of 10 - before Rebecca's death from“paralysis” (a stroke?) in 1891. He obviously was not crazy about single life. He married several more times before his death in 1918.

Hiram and Rebecca with their 10 children, including my great-grandfaher, 
William Vincent (back row with Bible)

William Smith Dickerson - A man with two families

(family lineage: William Smith Dickerson ¹ ; Hiram Dickerson ²; William Vincent Dickerson ³;

Queen Rebecca Dickerson ⁴; Edna Bethel Hayward ⁵; Judith Ann Hayward ⁶)

1801 - 1861

William S. Dickerson (probable picture passed down through the generations)

This branch of the Dickerson family tree was, if not lost, certainly misplaced.  One reason was that the genealogy records on William Vincent Dickerson and Elizabeth Martin gave no details beyond the fact that they were married in 1824 and their fourth child, Hiram Dickerson, was born in 1833. Their full story hid  behind a proverbial "brick wall".

But curiosity can be a great motivator, especially when genealogical research continually points to a William Smith Dickerson who was also the father of a Hiram and husband of an Elizabeth Martin in the same time period.  Trouble was  this William Dickerson had children much younger than Hiram and his middle name was Smith.  Obviously, you can ignore strong pointers like these just so long!

Finally, one night the brick wall started crumbling because of  something as simple as browsing through genealogy message boards.  What was found there was a message posted several years before which made it clear that there could be much more to the story than ever suspected.  

The writer was Almeda Lappin, who had spent a good portion of her life researching William Smith Dickerson with her cousin, Margaret Shawver.  Their research included chasing down records in various court houses and interviewing members of their far-flung family. These women continued to document all their findings with each other through the years.  Best of all,  Almeda gladly shared those findings and observations with me.  The story they told finally filled in some of the blanks of a  man's life which had been hidden for many years from his "first family".

Actually the new story began when William's tenure as husband and father of three children and another (Hiram) on the way, ended in 1832.  It's useless to speculate at this point what led to the divorce. Suffice it to say the official  record was recorded in Lawrence County, Kentucky in the Annotated Circuit Court records as follows:

“WILLIAM DICKERSON VS. ELIZABETH DICKERSON, Nov. 26, 1832: William Dickerson sues Elizabeth, his wife, for divorce; states he married Elizabeth Martin in the year 1824. Divorce was granted.”

Two years later he married Mary Cooper in Greenup County, Kentucky with whom he raised ten children, including a boy born two months before their marriage and carrying his mother's maiden name.

William obviously settled down when, on April 7, 1847,  he was ordained and granted a license to preach as an Exhorter by order of the Anberry Grove Clap Cravansville Circuit of Missouri Conference in the Methodist Episcopal Church South which had split off from the Methodist church over the issue of slavery.  A license to serve as Exhorter had to be signed by the “Preacher in Charge” and required that the Exhorter "hold meetings for prayer and exhortation whenever opportunity is afforded, attend all sessions of the quarterly conference, be subject to an annual examination of character and a renewal of license annually”.  His license was authorized “so long as his conduct shall comport with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” There is no confirmation that William's license was either renewed or revoked after 1847.

 

One of the treasures Margaret found came through a man who had seen and copied by hand entries made by William Smith Dickerson into a family Bible which was too old and frail to be photocopied for fear of damage. The following notes had been written in the Bible but not dated: 
 

"When my daughter led (sic) sick, I prayed to God three days at every opertunity (sic) for her Releaf (sic). The third day at night she got better. Next morning I went out as usal (sic) and Bowed down and give God the thanks. As I returned back I heard a voice saying "William, William, William". Said "hear (sic) am I." It said 'go back, go back, go back and give up your daughter for God almihty (sic) knows what is best'. By the help of God I dun(sic) so and she died within three or 4 hours afterwards. This I am willing to be qualified to at any minet (sic). Wm. S. Dickerson”

Also written in the Bible was his birth date and the date of his second marriage, as well as the birth and death dates of all of his children from both marriages.  However, information about his place of birth, parents, the name of his first wife and date of that marriage was neatly cut out of the Bible.  Although the "second family" children stated that he hadn't shared much about his previous life with them, it does make you wonder who cut that information out of the Bible (surely not the person who wrote it in the first place).

But this item was added into the Bible by a different hand: 

"Wm. S. Dickerson joined the southern army, 4^th Missouri Regiment as an Exhorter and soldier. Died of cholera on his way home 22 Dec. 1861”. 

The legend carried down through the years is that on the way home after  his term of service as chaplain to members of his congregation had been completed, he became ill, stopped off at a farmhouse because he had become too ill to travel, and died there of cholera at 60 years of age.   His grave was never found.

 
It is interesting to note that during those war years, the Dickersons were a divided family in loyalties. Both William and his son from his first family, Hiram, served the cause of the war on the Confederate side, while a son from his second family, William Wiley Dickerson, became a private in Company B of the 23rd Regiment in Missouri on the Union side three years after his father's death.  

Both sons survived the war and lived out their lives with their families.