Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/98

90 DICKINS the window should be closed, and immediately sank into a stupor, from which he never ral- lied. With no returning gleam of conscious- ness, he died the next evening. The cause of his death was apoplexy, brought on by over- work. He left five sons and two daughters, and bequeathed to them the greater portion of his estate. He had refused a baronetcy offered him by the queen, and in his will he wrote : " I emphatically direct that I be buried in an in- expensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner ; that no public announcement be made of the time or place of my burial. ... I direct that my name be inscribed in plain English let- ters on my tomb, without the addition of ' Mr.' or 4 Esquire.' I conjure my friends on no ac- count to make me the subject of any monu- ment, memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claims to the remembrance of my country upon my published works, and to the remembrance of my friends upon their expe- rience of me. In addition thereto I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide them- selves by the teachings of the New Testament in its broad spirit, and to put no faith in any man's narrow construction of its letter here or there." Dickens was buried privately in the poets' corner of Westminster abbey. He never furnished any materials for a biography ; but it is supposed that "David Copperfield," which is very generally considered his best novel, is largely autobiographical in fact, as it is in form. John Forster, his intimate friend and one of his executors, has written his biography in three volumes (London, 1872-'4; reprinted in Phila- delphia). See also " Life of Charles Dickens," of Dickens," by F. G. de Fontaine (New York, 1873). DICKINS, John, an American clergyman, born in London, Aug. 24, 1747, died in Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 1798. He studied at Eton, emigrated to America before the revolution, and was one of the prominent founders of the Methodist Episcopal church in America, suggesting the name which was adopted. From 1776 to 1782 he preached in Virginia and North Carolina. As early as 1780 he suggested to Bishop Asbury the plan of Cokesbury college, at N. Abing- don, Md., the first Methodist academic institu- tion in America. In 1783 he took charge of the John street church, New York, and was the first American preacher to receive Thomas Coke and approve his scheme for organizing tlu- < It-nomination. In 1789 he was stationed in Philadelphia, and there established the "Methodist Book Concern" (afterward re- moved to New York), commencing it with $600 I.-nt by himself to the church, and con- totring in charge of it till his death. His son, ASBURY DK KINS, born July 29, 1780, was in 1801 associated with Joseph Dennie in found- DICKINSON ing the "Port Folio" at Philadelphia. He was first clerk in the United States treasury department from 1816 to 1833, and in the state department from 1833 to 1836, when he was elected secretary of the United States senate which office he held till July 16, 1861. While in the treasury and state departments he was often acting secretary, and wrote many im- portant state papers. He died in Washington, Oct. 23, 1861. DICKINSON. I. A N. W. county of Iowa, bordering on Minnesota ; area, 430 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,389. It contains a number of small lakes, the principal of which is Spirit lake. The largest river is the Okoboji, an af- fluent of the Little Sioux. The chief produc- tions in 1870 were 21,871 bushels of wheat, 20,541 of oats, 5,267 of Indian corn, and 3,267 tons of hay. The total value of live stock was $81,470. Capital, Spirit Lake. II. A N. W. central county of Kansas, intersected by the Kansas river, and watered by its affluents; area, 846 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 3,043. The surface is mostly prairie, but somewhat diver- sified. The soil is fertile. The Kansas Pacific railroad traverses it. The chief productions in 1870 were 55,312 bushels of wheat, 97,615 of Indian corn, 21,628 of oats, 10,349 of pota- toes, 11,115 tons of hay, and 41,161 Ibs. of butter. There were 1,153 horses, 1,494 milch cows, and 5,157 other cattle. Capital, Abilene. DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, an American lec- turer and author, born in Philadelphia, Oct. 28, 1842. She was the youngest of five children, whose father died when she was two years old, leaving his family in poverty. She received her early education in the free schools of the society of Friends, to which her parents be- longed. At the age of 14 she made her first appearance in print, with an article on slavery in the "Liberator." At 17 she left school, and during the next two years taught at New Brighton and in Bucks co., Pa. Her first speech was made in a meeting of the associa- tion of Progressive Friends in Philadelphia, in January, 1860, the subject being "Woman's Eights and Wrongs ;" and from this time she began to speak frequently in such assemblies, chiefly on temperance and slavery. Mean- while she obtained employment in the Uni- ted States mint at Philadelphia. But in No- vember, 1861, in a speech alluding to the ac- tion at Ball's Bluff, she said, " This battle was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general ;" for which she was dismissed from the mint. Thereupon she made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political topics. Early in 1863 she accepted an invitation from the republican state committee of New Hamp- shire to enter the canvass for the March elec- tion. Afterward she accepted an invitation tc make a similar tour in Connecticut; and in the autumn of the same year she was engaged by the republican committee of Pennsylvania to speak in the mining and agricultural dis-