SANFORD DICKEY

Sacramento County

Biographies

SANFORD DICKEY

SANFORD DICKEY was born in Bartholomew County, Indiana, February 27, 1832, his parents being Thomas and Eunice (Starke) Dickey. The father, a native of Randolph County, North Carolina, lived to be ninety-two, and the mother, born in Monongahela County, Kentucky, died at seventy-eight. Grandfather William Dickey was over eighty when he died in Randolph County, North Carolina. Thomas Dickey was married to Eunice Starke, in Clark County, Indiana, about 1815, after the close of the war of 1812, in which he had served. They were the parents of five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived to maturity. In 1847 they moved to Marion County Iowa, where they bought a farm of 220 acres. The subject of this sketch received the usual district-school education and learned farming on his father’s place. In 1854 Sanford Dickey received a forty-acre farm from his father, and in September of that year was married to Miss Cynthia Billups, a native of Iowa, daughter of Edward and Theodosia (Barrett) Billups. In 1857 they came to California, accompanied by a nephew, Thomas Dickey, now living one and a half miles below Isleton. They left Council Bluffs May 10, and reached Placerville September 27. Coming down to Sacramento County, Sanford Dickey worked a few months for ranchers on the lower Stockton road near Franklin. He then entered 160 acres of Government land about two and a half miles south-east of Franklin, which he kept and worked until 1867, when he sold it to Walters, whose family now own it. In 1867 he bought the dairy business of the Jacobs ranch, half a mile west of Franklin, consisting of about forty cows. After one year he moved his dairy to the Tibbets ranch, about two miles below Richland. In the autumn of 1869 he moved to Ross’ ranch about midway between Franklin and Richland. About 1875 he quit the dairy business and moved to Miller’s ranch about two miles below Freeport, where he remained about three years, engaged chiefly in peddling meat. Then moving a mile further south on the river road, he was engaged for about two years in general farming and fruit-growing on the Neubauer ranch. October 6, 1880, he moved into the Isleton Hotel as renter, bought it in August, 1881, including lot, 80 x 120 feet, and still conducts it. He also rents the Cole ranch of 819 acres on the Georgiana Slough, devoted chiefly to raising natural hay and alfalfa. Besides quietly and kindly caring for the welfare of his guests, and actively superintending the hotel and ranch work, Mr. Dickey is road overseer of a large territory, including Grand Island and Georgiana Township. Mrs. Dickey died in March, 1867, leaving six children, the two oldest being natives of Iowa and the others of California; Delilah, born March 5, 1855, now Mrs. James Aikens, of Sacramento; Homer Lawrence, born February 19, 1857, married to Miss Margaret Drone, a native of Canada, who came to California in 1885, they reside in Isleton and have one child, Cynthia Marie, born July 27, 1888; Naomi, born October 9, 1859, now Mrs. Louis Wagner, of Sacramento, has one daughter; Cynthia, born May 3, 1861, now Mrs. Charles Shipley, of Philadelphia, has one son; Iva, born January 14, 1863, now Mrs. George Hignett, of Sacramento; Sanford, Jr., born October 14, 1865, still unmarried, assists his father especially as road overseer. October 9, 1868. Mr. Dickey was married to Mrs. Melinda (Haruff) Funk, a widow with one child, Frances, born September 7, 1865, now Mrs. Arthur Dulion, of Sacramento. Mrs. Melinda Dickey was born in Arkansas, January 28, 1843, her parents being Peter and Margaret (Hinton) Haruff. With her mother and step-father she came to California in 1849, and with them went back in 1852, and returned to California in 1866. Her mother, now Mrs. Margaret Gordon, born in Ohio June 14, 1812, is living in San Jose, California. Grandfather Hinton was also a native of Ohio, and grandmother (Filson) Hinton was a native of South Carolina. She was over seventy when she died. By this second marriage Mr. Dickey has two children: Angeline, born December 23, 1869; Hiram Joseph, born July 5, 1879.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 760-761. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.