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STEPHEN DECATUR CHAPTER
NATIONAL SOCIETY DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
"Decatur, Macon County, IL"

This page updated October 11, 2002

GRAVE of WILLIAM DICKEY

REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER

Marked June 6, 1912

      


WILLIAM DICKEY
SOLDIER IN THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
ERECTED BY
DECATUR CHAPTER DAR


William Dickey - Born: May 6, 1764 - Died: June 28, 1832

William Dickey is buried in Friends Creek Cemetery, Argenta, Macon County, Illinois.


Excerpts from Decatur Diary article "Herald & Review" Sunday July 8, 1979, page 52:

The DAR placed a marker on the grave of William Dickey at Friend's Creek Cemetery, Argenta, in 1912. William Dickey settled in Friends Creek Township in 1828. He was born May 6, 1764, in Virginia, which was his place of residence at the time the war broke out.

Dickey was a gunner with John Champ Carter's First Artillery Regiment and the Capt. William Waters Co. Dickey enlisted Jan. 5, 1777, and served three years. He was listed as an apprentice matross "gunner" from October of 1777 to May of 1780. His name was last to appear on the payroll in 1780.

Dickey married Mary Stephenson and moved through Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky before settling in Illinois.

Dickey had 11 children, two of whom became well known in the county. His son, John Dickey, became the first justice of the peace in 1836 and was succeeded by his brother, Andrew, in 1846.

William Dickey is believed to have made one of the first four or five wills in the county. Dickey died June 26, 1832. There were no county burial grounds at the time, so Dickey was buried on his farm. His wife also died in Argenta in 1862. Eventually, the Dickey estate left two acres of land to Macon County for a cemetery.




Some of the family members and Stephen Decatur Chapter NSDAR members attending Tribute in 2000.

On October 25, 2000, family members and members of Stephen Decatur Chapter NSDAR gathered to pay tribute to William Dickey. A new stone had been erected to replace the old worn stone marking his grave.

This biography was read: William Dickey was born in Virginia May 6, 1764, and served as a soldier in the latter part of the Revolutionary War. Family tradition tells us that his future bride watched him march down the village street with the volunteers as their company went to join the army.

He was married to Mary Stephenson in North Carolina in 1790 and they raised 10 children: John, Martha, James, Eda, Mary, William, Jesse, Mathias, Andrew, and David.

William Dickey was one of the early settlers of Macon Co., arriving in 1829 when this land was first opening up for settlement and the county was being formed. He is shown on the 1830 US Census living in Macon County, Illinois (page 125).

William Dickey died in 1832 at the age of 68 years, 1 month, 22 days and is buried beside his wife in the Friends Creek Cemetery. Mary Dickey died June 25, 1862 aged 88 years, 3 months, 5 days.

There have been several generations of Dickey's and related families in Macon County since 1829.

Sources: Argenta, Illinois 1873-1973; Macon Co IL Cemetery Inscriptions Vol IV; Macon Co IL 1830 Census & Lineage Papers.