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Elijan
Dickinson
Elijah Dickinson, son of Richard and Ann (Quarles) Dickinson, was born Jan. 26, 1795, in
Spottsylvania county, Virginia. He was of Scotch English descent.
In 1814, during the war of 1812, he joined a volunteer cavalry company and served till the close of the war.
He came to Christian county, Kentucky, about the year 1817. Here he was married October 6,
1819, to Miss Vary Ann Burrus, and in Jane 1821, they united with the Baptist Church. A few Years later the preaching of the primitive gospel was begun in that community by some of our pioneer Disciple preachers. He heard it frankly, and in 1831, with nineteen others, left the Baptist Church and united in organizing a Christian Church, of which he was made an elder.
In the fall of 1835 he removed with his wife and six children -- J. Quarles, Cynthia M., Celia B., M. Elizabeth, Elmira J., and Elijah W.--to Walnut Grove, Illinois. Here two sons were added to his family, Charles R. and Roger B. A church of Disciples had been organized here several years before. In 1837 he was made one of the elders, and was kept in that office the remainder of his life.
In his early life schools were few and inferior about his boyhood home, and his opportunities for that kind of education were very limited indeed. But he was a thoughtful man, a diligent reader, a close observer, and a good judge of human nature, and so gathered much general information. He was a staunch friend and promoter of thorough education and labored earnestly for the upbuilding of Walnut Grove Academy and Eureka College.
Was elected one of the Board of Trustees of the Academy at its organization in 1850. After the death of President Ben Major, in 1852, he was elected President of the Board, and so continued till his death.
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During his early manhood he was a carpenter, but after his marriage he chose farming as his occupation, and continued in it first in Kentucky, then in Illinois. He peacefully fell asleep, July 28, 1862, at his old homestead one and a half miles southwest of the college, and his body reposes in Eureka Cemetery.
Source:
A History of Eureka College, St. Louis: Christian Publishing
Company, 1894.
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