Dickinson family
The Daniel and Tammy Dickinson Papers document the lives of members of the Daniel Dickinson and Tammy Eastman families. The collection is divided almost equally among correspondence to Tammy Dickinson; correspondence to and from Daniel Dickinson; and correspondence to and from either other members of Dickinson or Eastman families, or from friends and acquaintances. The correspondence covers three generations.
The following biographical sketches describe family members most represented in the collection. Many other correspondents or subjects are listed at the end of the finding aid, under search terms.
- Daniel Dickinson (1793-1874) was one of four sons of Azariah (b. 1753) and Mary Eastman Dickinson (b. 1761) of Amherst, Massachusetts. He attended local schools and then turned to farming, eventually taking over the family farm when his father died in 1813. He was deeply involved in town and church affairs, including the organization in 1826 of the Union Church of North Amherst. He was married first to Louisa (sometimes identified as Laura) Adams (b. 1798) of Leverett, Mass. or Newfane, Vt. (records vary) with whom he had a son and daughter. After her early death in 1828, he married Tammy Dickinson, with whom he had two daughters and four sons. Additional biographical information for Daniel Dickinson is in William S. Tyler's sermon, Discourse delivered at the funeral of Daniel Dickinson at Amherst, Mass., December 29, 1874, copies of which are in Daniel Dickinson's non-alumnus biographical file and in the William S. Tyler Papers in the Archives and Special Collections.
- Tammy (Martha Thomassine) Eastman (1801-1887) was the daughter of William Eastman (b. 1763) and Tamerson Read (b. 1770). Like the Dickinsons, the Eastman family is a widespread family in Western Massachusetts, and Tammy's branch - her children, and her siblings and their wives -- is well-represented in this collection. Tammy herself is less well represented, having only one sure item in her hand, a diary entry that suggests the difficulties of being a farmer's wife and the mother of two young children with another on the way. Letters to her indicate that her family was as devoted to her she was to them.
- Rev. Austin Dickinson (1791-1849) was the second son of Azariah and Mary Eastman Dickinson. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1813, read law with Samuel Fowler Dickinson (grandfather of Emily Dickinson), traveled south for both religious and health reasons, and returned to Amherst in 1822. He became involved with the struggle to obtain a charter from the state "in the face of an organized, virtually state-wide opposition" (see Keep, below) for the new college in Amherst and devoted several years to the effort (chronicled in Ornan Eastman's "Rev. Austin Dickinson, His Services to Amherst College," 1872). He also published sermons (his own and those of others) and, in 1844, turned to inserting religious articles into secular newspapers in order to obtain a wider audience for the topic. His wife describes this work in her letter of February 3, 1845 (folder 18). Austin Dickinson died of cholera in 1849. See "Centennial Biographies: Two Amherst Dickinsons" by Austin Baxter Keep (AC 1897) in Amherst Graduates Quarterly, No. 35, May, 1920. Additional biographical information, including Ornan Eastman's piece mentioned above, may be found in Austin Dickinson's non-alumnus biographical file.
- Rev. Baxter Dickinson (1795-1875) was the youngest of Azariah and Mary Dickinson's four sons. Like his brother Austin, Baxter Dickinson was marked early for the ministry. After his graduation from Yale in 1817, he attended Andover Theological Seminary and took his first position in Longmeadow, Mass., where he worked until 1829. A letter written from Longmeadow in 1829 by his wife, Martha Bush Dickinson, is in folder 11. Baxter Dickinson then worked in several locations before moving to Lake Forest, Ill., from which place he wrote several of the letters in this collection. From 1859 to 1868, Baxter Dickinson's four daughters had a school in Lake Forest, the Dickinson Seminary for Young Ladies (see collections.lakeforest.edu/items/show/5727http://collections.lakeforest.edu/items/show/5727 for a photograph), and both Baxter and his wife worked with his daughters in the school. Baxter's lively, detailed letters provide useful information about his family, their school, and life in Illinois during the period. The family moved back to Brooklyn, New York, sometime in 1868 and resided there for many years. Baxter Dickinson died in 1875 at age 80. Two of his sons were Amherst alumni, Richard Salter Storrs Dickinson (AC 1844) and William Cowper Dickinson (AC 1848). The latter was one of Emily Dickinson's correspondents, along with sisters Harriet and Martha.
- Louisa Dickinson Greene (1830-1881) was the daughter of Daniel and Tammy Dickinson. Aside from her mother's journal description about Louisa's mischievousness (folder 13), little is known about her early years. She probably attended a local school either in Amherst or North Amherst, perhaps even Amherst Academy, although her name is not in extant catalogues. In 1847-1848 she attended Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, where she would have found her cousin Emily Dickinson. Two sources agree that she subsequently attended the Bradford Female Seminary in Bradford, Mass. (near Boston) for about a year; however, one of those sources says that she spent "her 18th year" (which would have been 1848-1849) with the Baxter Dickinsons in Auburn, New York, so it remains unclear when she attended Bradford. After her schooling, she commenced teaching, holding posts in three states between 1849 and 1856. While teaching in New York, she met John Morton Greene (AC 1848), who prevailed upon her to return to Mt. Holyoke to finish her studies before their marriage. This she did, returning to South Hadley in 1856 and graduating in 1857. After their marriage, Louisa and John Greene lived in Hatfield, South Hadley, and Lowell, Mass. Louisa's many letters to her mother provide details of her family life and the work she and her husband performed for the communities in which they lived. Louisa Greene died at her home in Lowell in 1881. The most detailed treatments of her life may be found in: "Memorial Sermon: Preached April 1, 1881, at the funeral of Mrs. Louisa Dickinson Greene," by Rev. C. L. Woodworth, and Foreshadowings of Smith College, by daughter Helen French Greene (see links below). The latter volume includes photographs of Louisa and John Greene.
- Edward Baxter Dickinson (1840-1867) was the youngest son of Daniel and Tammy Dickinson. There is no known record of his youth, but he is likely to have attended a school in either North Amherst or Amherst. Our knowledge of him comes from letters to his family written during the Civil War. Edward enlisted in the 27th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and served from 1861-1864. In June, 1864, he was wounded at Cold Harbor, Virginia, hospitalized in Grant General Hospital on Willets Point, New York, and mustered out in September. The nine letters from the front in this collection are undoubtedly a fraction of what he wrote home. After returning from war, Edward headed west, staying first with his uncle Baxter Dickinson in Illinois and then starting a business, probably a general store, in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Edward often commented on his good health, even during war years, but he seems to have fallen ill quickly and severely, dying in 1867.
From the guide to the Daniel and Tammy Dickinson Family Papers, 1818-1901, 1850-1880, (Amherst College Archives and Special Collections)
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