Representative Jesse Column Dickey

Jesse Column Dickey (February 27, 1808 – February 19, 1890) was a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was born on February 27, 1808, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and in 1812 moved with his parents to New London, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Raised in this rural community, he received his early education locally and later graduated from New London Academy, an institution that prepared many young men of the region for professional and public life.

After completing his education, Dickey began his career in education and agriculture. In 1828 he became a teacher at Hopewell Academy, reflecting both his academic preparation and the importance of local academies in early nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. Alongside his work in the classroom, he engaged in agricultural pursuits, a common combination in an era when farming remained central to the economy and social structure of Chester County.

On December 11, 1834, Dickey married Margaret J. Dickey, the daughter of Colonel David Dickey of Hopewell Cotton Mill, near Oxford, Pennsylvania. The marriage allied him with a locally prominent family connected to early industrial enterprise in the region. Jesse and Margaret Dickey had nine children. Their family connections extended into other notable local lineages; their daughter Letitia married Aaron B. Storey, further embedding the Dickey family in the social and civic fabric of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Dickey’s public career began in state politics. A member of the Whig Party, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Chester County and served from 1843 to 1845. In the state legislature he participated in the deliberations of a period marked by debates over internal improvements, banking, and the evolving party system in Pennsylvania. His service in Harrisburg helped establish his reputation as a capable legislator and prepared him for national office.

Building on his state legislative experience, Dickey was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in the Thirty-first Congress. As a member of the Whig Party representing Pennsylvania, he contributed to the legislative process during one term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history characterized by sectional tensions and debates over slavery, territorial expansion, and economic policy. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Thirty-second Congress, ending his brief but notable tenure in national office.

During the American Civil War, Dickey returned to public service in a military capacity. He initially served under Cassius M. Clay during the defense of Washington, D.C., at a time when the capital was under threat in the early stages of the conflict. He then entered the United States Army’s administrative branches, first as a quartermaster and later as a paymaster. In these roles he was responsible for the supply and financial administration essential to sustaining Union forces. His duties required extensive travel, and he worked in major logistical centers including St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He continued in this federal service until June 1866, remaining in uniform through the end of the war and into the early Reconstruction period.

In his later years, Dickey resided in New London, where he had spent most of his life. He lived to see the profound transformations of the United States from the antebellum period through the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. Jesse Column Dickey died in New London on February 19, 1890. He was interred in the New London Presbyterian Church Cemetery, reflecting his long association with the community in which he had been educated, had taught, and had built his family and public career.