William and Ellender/Eleanor "Ellen" (Teague) Dickson (1796-1865)
William Dickson was born April 11, 1796 and died May 12, 1865. From tentative research, yet to be fully proven, it is believed William Dickson was a son of Joseph and Sarah (Moore) Dickson of Chatham Co., NC (that county’s 1800 census supports this theory, published in the Acuff-Kirchner DIXON genealogy). The date and location of William Dickson’s marriage to Ellender/Eleanor "Ellen" Teague, while unproven, is believed to be ca. 1819 in Burke Co., NC (or possibly in Rutherford Co., TN). Ellen/Eleanor "Ellen" Teague was born March 24, 1796 in Burke Co., NC and died September 25, 1865. (Their birth and death dates are derived from tombstone inscriptions found in the Clearsprings Presbyterian Church cemetery in McMinn Co., TN, where their names are spelled "WILLIAM & ELEANOR DIXON." Their marriage year is estimated from the birth date of their first-born child, William B. Dickson/Dixon born 20 May 1820, probably in Burke Co., NC.)
In 1840, William Dickson with a wife and five children was counted in the 1840 census for Sullivan Co., TN. In the 1850 census the family lived in McMinn Co., TN: Dickson, Wm. age 52, Ellen age 53, John age 21, Joseph age 19, Franklin age 18, all born in NC. (Also counted in this household: Dickson, Mary age 35, born in TN. Mary is the right age to be an unmarried niece of William Dickson, if the Acuff-Kirchner DIXON Genealogy is correct.) In a separate household in McMinn Co. lived William and Ellen's married son: Dickson, William age 31 with his wife Nancy age 27 and 5 children. One of William and Ellen Dickson’s children died between 1840-1850. Their only known daughter--Elizabeth born 1824--married ___ Cole before 1850 (this family was not indexed in the 1850 census for TN). In the McMinn Co. 1860 census Elizabeth (Dickson/Dixon) Cole was counted as a widow: Cole, Elizabeth age 35 with 4 children, ages ranging from 14 to 4 years. William Dickson’s heirs are named as residents in McMinn Co., TN Deed Book O: (200) 21 Aug 1865—"F. A., William B., and John J. Dixon, and Elizabeth Cole to J. W. Dixon, all heirs of William Dixon dec'd."
William Dickson’s occupation was listed as "engaged in agriculture" in the 1840 census, and as "farmer" in the 1850-60 census. In the 1860 census "William and Ellender Dixon" were enumerated as Family 1086 in the 17th District of McMinn Co., TN--Calhoun was their post office—and three sons with their families were neighbors: Franklin A. Dixon (Family 1085), John J. Dixon (Family 1084) and William Dixon (Family 1083). From this same census it is known that William and Ellen Dickson could neither read nor write. William and Ellen (Teague) Dickson’s final resting place is flanked by the stones of three grandchildren who died young: a son of Joseph W. Dickson/Dixon, and a daughter and son of John J. Dickson/Dixon (reference: the W.P.A. transcription in the 1930s of tombstones in McMinn Co., TN cemeteries).
Regretfully, nothing of a personal nature concerning William and Ellender/Eleanor "Ellen" (Teague) Dickson is known by this biography’s contributor, their great-great-granddaughter. Only through census, court and cemetery records, plus input from other Dixon/Dickson descendants, could their identities be discovered. The contributor’s father, who died in 1982 at the ripe old age of 89+, knew his parents’ full names and his siblings, but nothing more!
Contributed by Mary Foster Ludvigsen