History of Port Ontario, (Oswego County) New York United States of America

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Donald McDonald Dickinson, cabinet officer, was born in Port Ontario, N.Y., Jan. 17, 1846; son of Col. Asa C. and Minerva (Holmes) Dickinson; and grandson of Lodewyck Dickinson of Great Barrington, Mass., and of the Rev. Jesseniah Holmes of Pomfret, Conn. His first ancestors in America were Deacon Nathaniel Dickinson, who settled in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1637, and in Hadley, Mass., about 1658, and Philemon Dickerson, who came to the same place from London, England, a few years later and removed in 1672 to Southold, Long Island, N.Y. These two were the founders of the Dickerson and Dickinson family in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. This branch of the family were Presbyterians, while the descendants of Charles Dickinson, who died in London, England, in 1653, settled in Virginia and Maryland and were Quakers. His father visited the northwest in 1820, explored the shores of the great lakes in a birch bark canoe, and in 1848 settled his family in St. Clair county, Mich., removing to Detroit in 1852. Donald was prepared for college in the schools of Detroit and by a private tutor and was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1867. He was married, June 15, 1869, to Frances L., daughter of Dr. Alonzo Platt of Grand Rapids, Mich. He engaged in the practice of his profession in Detroit, Mich., and acquired an extended clientage in all the courts of record to the highest in the United States. He was chairman of the Democratic state central campaign committee in 1876 and conducted the Tilden and Hendricks campaign. He was a delegate-at-large to the Democratic national conventions of 1880 and 1884, and a member of the Democratic national committee, 1884-85. In 1887 he was appointed postmaster-general in President Cleveland's cabinet to succeed William T. Vilas of Wisconsin, transferred to the interior department on Dec. 6th of that year. At the close of Mr. Cleveland's first administration Mr. Dickinson returned to the practice of the law in Detroit. He was chairman of the Democratic national committee in 1892, and he declined to serve as cabinet officer in Mr. Cleveland's second administration. He was chief counsel for the United States before the joint high commission created to adjust claims growing out of the Bering sea seizures of sailing vessels in 1887, which commission met at Victoria, B.C., in November, 1896, and held adjourned meetings at Halifax, N.S. and in Montreal.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Port Ontario, (Oswego County) New York

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