Second marriage to MARY E. KINGSBURY daughter of Rev. E. W. Kingsbury, Baptist minister in La Bette Co., Kansas
Children of Austin T. & Mary: 1. F. E. Olivia Dickerman, b. Oct. 28, 1871, d. Dec. 26, 1872
2. George Nelson Dickerman, b. Sept. 10, 1873, d. Feb. 28, 1882
3. Julia Amanda Dickerman, b. Jan. 8, 1875
4. M. M. Manly Dickerman, b. March 16, 1876, d. Aug. 29, 1877
5. Mary May Dickerman, b. Nov. 17, 1877
6. Rebecca Ann Dickerman, b. Feb. 13, 1879
7. Arthur T. Dickerman, b. Sept. 18, 1880, d. Oct. 8, 1880
8. Alva Austin Dickerman, b. Nov. 12,1881
9. Lily L. Dickerman, b. March 19, 1883
10. Daisy H. Dickerman, b. Oct. 14, 1885
11. Addie T. Dickerman, b. Nov. 12, 1887
Austin T. Dickerman volunteered in the 91st Reg. Illinois Volunteers in 1862 but was rejected for physical disability. He then went to Kansas to the Osage Mission, Neosho County, and entered into trade with the Indians, living on the border and among them for five years and learning to speak three or four languages. He became an independent scout for the United States Government against the Indians attached to the Southern confederacy in the region between Osage Mission and Fort Gibson and upon the Arkansas River. Once he road a single horse a hundred and fifteen miles in one day; again he rode a hundred and sixty miles in forty-eight hours, and at another time was in the saddle eleven days in succession, going from sixty to seventy-five miles a day. On these expeditions he had to do as he could for food, and once was out seven days with but one meal during the whole time. After this he had to start anew. He lost his property by the plundering of guerillas and Indians, and after the war, July 15, 1865, obtained a permit of the Osage chief, for himself and his brother-in-law, S. W. Johnson, to settle on La Bette river, in what is now La Bette Co, Kansas. He went down first and built a cabin with only an axe, saw and augur for tools, and without a nail or a sawed board to work with. When they moved into it, the nearest neighbor was twenty-six miles away, and it was sixty-five miles to a store; but game was abundant, and the larder was never empty. Sept. 29, 1865, the government purchased from the Osage Indians a portion of their lands in Kansas, and the country was soon flooded with settlers. On the organization of the county, Mr. Dickerman was appointed county clerk by the Governor and was elected by the people to the same office. His wife died in 1867 and he took his children back to Illinois. Returning, he engaged himself as clerk and interpreter to a fur company, continued with them a year and then left the Indians for good. Having married a second wife he lived on a farm in La Bette County till 1883, when they moved to Oswego, Kansas.
Taken from "FAMILIES OF DICKERMAN ANCESTRY" published by Edward Dwight Dickerman, 1897. |