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Dickinson Family Papers, 1854-1951
| Maine Maritime Museum Manuscript Collection Online Catalog
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Dickinson Family Papers, 1854-1951



Prominent family in Phippsburg and Bath, Maine
Papers of the Dickinson Family. Majority of papers belong to Capt. Wylie Rogers Dickinson (b.1846-d.1918), Master of ships Aryan, Rappahannock II and Yorktown. These include both vessels and personal papers. Vessel papers are comprised of ownership documents, articles of agreement, insurance, correspondence, captain’s log-books, invoices and account summaries. Personal papers include correspondence between family and friends including his brother, Capt. John Wesley Dickinson (b.1850-d.1909). Also included in this collection are the personal papers of Emma S. Dickinson (b.1850-d.1926], wife of Capt. Dickinson, Bessie Emma (b.1874-d.1957) and Grace Percy (b.1877-d.1950), daughters of Capt. Dickinson. These papers are primarily personal correspondence between family and friends. Bessie’s papers include a handwritten manuscript of her sea experiences as a young woman on the Rappahannock II.

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Dickinson, Wylie Rogers, Captain (1846-1918)
Dickinson, Bessie Emma (1874-1957)
Dickinson, Emma S. (1850-1926)
Dickinson, Grace Percy (1877-1950)
Dickinson, John Wesley, Captain (1850-1909)
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Aryan (Ship)
Bath (ME)
Dickinson, Bessie Emma
Dickinson, Emma S. (S. Emma)
Dickinson, Grace Percy
Dickinson, John W.
Dickinson, Wiley R., Captain
Families at sea
Lady Dufferin (bark)
Minott, Charles V.
Minott, Charles V., Jr.
Phippsburg (ME)
Rappahanock (2) (ship)
Ridin' Light Lodge
Sewall, Arthur
Ship captains
Shipping
Ships--Owners
Yorktown (ship)

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English

Capt. Lew Parker communicated with Bessie Dickinson between 1954 and 1956 via personal correspondence. In a personal letter to Capt. Parker dated August 14, 1956 Bessie says, “I am sending the accounts you asked for, I presume these papers are what you wanted…we burned and thrown away so much, trying to get rid of the years accumulations.” In her last letter to Capt. Parker dated September 1, 1956, she said, “I came across these papers and lest they get mislaid, I am forwarding them to you.”
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Papers
The contents of the Dickinson Family Papers were originally housed in Capt. Wylie’s ditty box. Most of the vessel papers belonged to Capt. Wylie R. Dickinson when he was master of a number of vessels including the large ships Aryan, Rappahannock II and Yorktown. Vessel papers include ownership papers, insurance, registration, construction invoices, correspondence (mostly incoming), account summaries, labor and wage receipts and protest papers. Not all vessel papers are complete. There are vessel papers (dividend statements) of ships the family had an interest in. Other vessel papers have no reference to the Dickinson name, so it is difficult to determine if they had a vested interest or not.
Two small sewing kits were in Wylie’s ditty box. One is a square tin and the other in a very small round wicker basket with lid. (Crewmen carried little sewing kits known as “housewives.” These usually small tin cans or boxes contained needles, buttons, threads, cloth and pins.) Wylie’s sewing kits contained needles, pins, threads, buttons, hooks, nails, beeswax, and pieces of cloth.
Other papers found in the box were general and personal letters written by Wylie Dickinson, John Dickinson, wife Emma S. Dickinson and daughters Bessie Emma and Grace Percy Dickinson.
Research notes and articles on local history were also found in the ditty box belonging to Bessie Dickinson. It was a bit difficult to determine if some of these papers were hers or taken from articles as she did not sign any of her work. If the story was written in first person referring to her father, then I assumed these were written by Bessie. The date she wrote these is unknown. A large unpublished manuscript written in long hand by Bessie Dickinson was also found in the box. It details her sea experiences on the Rappahannock II during its trip around Cape Horn. She takes the liberty of using many of her father’s diary entries to build her own story and even admits this in her foreword “our journals and ship papers have been saved, and many of these I have copied for this tale.” There is also a typewritten copy but both are not complete, have missing pages and many extensive additions and editorial changes made by Bessie. Bessie sent a copy of her manuscript to Maine author, Hugh Pendexter for review and received a reply in 1938. This may help date the manuscript around the 1930s.
A large number of personal letters written to Grace and Bessie are from David S. Kindell, a past shipmate on the Aryan when both girls were on board during their youth. Mr. Kindell became close to the Dickinson Family. There are references to his experiences on the Aryan in these letters and other interesting maritime tidbits. Personal letters to Grace and Bessie from Abbie Minott give an interesting commentary on Bath social life.
It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive collection of the Dickinson Family. Papers. As noted previously in a letter written by Bessie to Capt. Parker in 1956, many papers were “burned or thrown away.”