Atchison County Biographies
E. W. Howe's Historical Edition of the Atchison Daily Globe
These biographies were originally published in 1896 in the Atchison Daily Globe, written by the editor and publisher, E. W. Howe. In 1916 the biographies were reproduced in Sheffield Ingall's "History of Atchison County, Kansas," with a few updates such as death information.
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LUTHER DICKERSON.
Luther Dickerson came to Atchison county in June, 1854, immediately
after Kansas was opened to settlement, from Saline county, Missouri, where he
had lived ten years. He went to Missouri from Washington county, Ohio,
where he was born in 1825. After looking over the county Mr. Dickerson
returned to Missouri, but came back to Kansas the following October, and
"squatted" on a tract of land a mile north of the State Orphans' Home. From
1854 to 1857 were the squatter sovereignty days, during which period a
settled could have no title to land, further than the fact of his settlement on the
land he selected as his home. Land offices were not established until in 1857,
when the squatter filed his claims, and began fighting over them. The first
land office in this section was at Doniphan. John Whitfield, who was
afterwards in Congress, was the register. About a year later the land office
was removed to Kickapoo, just below Atchison.
When Mr. Dickerson squatted on his claim in 1854, three-fourths of the
land around him was taken,
Welcome Nance, Peter Cummings, John Taylor
and Widow Boyle had farms at that time. Andy Colgan did not come until
1857. The settlers of 1854 were mostly from Missouri. In 1855 came an
organized band of South Carolinians, whose object was to make Kansas a
slave State. Then followed the fierce and relentless fight with the Free State
men, which ended in 1857, as far as this section was concerned. That is. in
1857 the Free State men won control, and have practically kept it ever since.
In the fall of that year the Free State men elected their county ticket, and
Luther Dickerson was chosen as one of the four commissioners and was made
chairman.
Luther Dickerson was a Free State man and was fought by all the Missouri and
South Carolinians. His land was contested, and he was beaten in
the land office, but he finally won before the secretary of the interior, by
proving that the woman who was contesting him was a foreigner. Hiram
Latham, a Free State man, who lived across the road from Dickerson, was
murdered in Doniphan, and because of this murder Frank McVey left the
country and never came back. The men who killed Latham were ferried
over Independence creek by Dickerson, and, noticing that they were armed, he
asked where they were going. They said they were going wolf hunting. In
1858 Luther Dickerson was elected a member of the house of representatives,
which met at Lecompton, and then adjourned to Lawrence. In the same year,
while still a county commissioner, he built the old court house, which occupied
the site of the present court house.
Luther Dickerson raised the first company of soldiers ever organized in
the State of Kansas, in May, 1861. The first military order issued in the
State was directed to him, signed by John A. Martin, assistant adjutant
general.
But while his company was the first organized, it happened that Dickerson's commission as captain was the second issued, and was signed by
Governor Charles Robinson, before the State had an official seal. Afterwards. Mr.
Dickerson served in the regular volunteer service, as first lieutenant.
He lived on his land, north of town, for many years, and died in Atchison
on the thirteenth day of December, 1910.
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This website created Jan. 24, 2012 by Sheryl McClure.
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