1925 Biography - Samuel A. Dickson

Samuel Augustus Dickson, M. D. While he practiced medicine for several years and later directed with characteristic drive and success a large commercial business, the esteem in which the name of the late Dr. Augustus Dickson is held rests upon the broader base of a most enlightened and public spirited service to his home city of Shreveport. He had the personal qualities that make for leadership, and he exercised them always with sincere disinterestedness in behalf of the public welfare.

Doctor Dickson was born March 18, 1852, on Rush Point Plantation, in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, third son of Michael Alexander and Martha (Lipscomb) Dickson, the other sons being Dr. William L. Dickson, Michael A. Dickson and John Carter Dickson. He was a grandson of Michael A. Dickson and Hannah Palmer, and Hannah Palmer was a daughter of Archibald D. Palmer of Clinton, Louisiana, who served in the War of 1812. His maternal grandparents were William Lipscomb and Anne Norwood, of Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

Samuel Augustus Dickson while a boy attended school in Bossier Parish, and completed his literary education at Centenary College, then located at Jackson. Louisiana. He was graduated in 1882, and later read medicine in the office of Drs. T. J. and Walter Allen, proprietors of a private sanitarium at Shreveport. Following that he served as an interne in the old Charity Hospital and later attended the medical department at Tulane University, from which he graduated. After practicing for a the in his country home in Bossier Parish he moved to New Orleans to engage in the retail drug business, and in 1889 returned to Shreveport, forming a partnership with Iler & Morris. In 1893 A. B. Morris and S. A. Dickson organized the business of Morris & Dickson, wholesale druggists. Doctor Dickson became president of the company in 1900, and continued the directing head of this very prosperous and widely connected wholesale house until his death.

Doctor Dickson was a born leader of men. He believed that service was the biggest word in the English language, and his constant desire was to work with and for his fellowmen and thereby serve his Maker. Early he developed a taste for politics, and soon became active in civic affairs. He was a member of the conventions which nominated Murphy J. Foster and W. W. Heard for governors of Louisiana, and while his chief interest was always in municipal affairs, he wielded great influence in state politics.

He was first elected a member of the City Council of Shreveport in 1902, leading the ticket in a memorable contest. As chairman of the committee on fire and police he laid the foundation and did much for the building up of the fire department. After four years' service on the council, in 1906, he ran for mayor, being defeated by E. R. Bernstein. In 1908 he again was a candidate for mayor, and defeated J. C. Foster. He was up for reelection in 1910, but was defeated by J. H. Eastham. Four years later he again entered the race against Mr. Eastham and D. B. Samuels, defeating his combined opponents.

While in the council and particularly during his two terms as mayor Doctor Dickson was noted for his uncompromising fight for municipal ownership and defense of the rights of the people. He carried out a long and determined struggle against the traction company, winning for the city universal transfers. He also won for the city the municipal ownership of the waterworks. Another notable achievement during his administration, for which he was personally responsible and for which he should receive a full measure of credit, was the construction of the viaduct crossing the K, C. & S. Railway tracks, a public improvement of inestimable benefit to the community. Both his friends and his enemies recognized hint as an uncompromising foe of inefficiency, graft and the suppler forms of official dishonesty. At the same time he held to programs that could be carried out and refused to allow his zeal for reform to carry him beyond the power of the courts and other law enforcing agencies.

As a private citizen he was of great service to the public schools. Taking a position upon the school board and becoming its president, with his splendid ability he entered whole-souled into his responsibilities and did much to lay the secure foundation and make provision for future education. Doctor Dickson held a life membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, was a member of the Shreveport Columbia Club and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.

Governor J. V. Sanders appointed him a member of the Caddo Levee Board, and while president of that hoard he conceived a drainage system, the digging of one canal to drain thousands of acres that had sold for 25 cents an acre, making them worth today from $100 to $150 an acre.

In June, 1916, Doctor Dickson left Shreveport to attend a convention of the Waterworks Association in New York. Following this convention he was to attend the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis as a delegate tram Louisiana. He was seized with acute indigestion while aboard the train in St. Louis, and died in that city June 2nd. Doctor Dickson was a man who made warm friends and active enemies. Firm in his convictions and unyielding in his opinions, once he decided a question fully in his own mind, he was an opponent to be dreaded. In private life he was the most loyal and faithful of friends, and even those who most bitterly opposed him politically were as a unit in admiring his courage and proclaiming his thorough honesty of purpose. Often in the midst of political turmoil, and fighting always for what he thought was the best for his home town, he exercised a great political power and at the time of his sudden death was enjoying that power at its zenith.

While a young man Doctor Dickson married Miss Mildred Sentell, daughter of G. W. and Mildred (Dickson) Sentell of New Orleans. Of this union six children were born: Mildred, who married Mahlon H. Levy; Carter Bickham, who married Alverne Smith; George S., who married Mattie Holmes; Samuel Allen, who married Emily Hunt; Claudius Markham, who married Marjorie Fields and Susie, who became the wife of J. Russell Welsh.

In July, 1911, Doctor Dickson married Miss Beulah Dillingham, of Austin, Texas, daughter of Brice and Sarah (Woodward) Dillingham. To this union a son, Brice Dillingham, was born.

Mrs. Dickson is a native of the Lone Star State, born and educated in Austin. Her parents moved from Tennessee to Austin in the early fifties, and were identified with the history of that section of Texas when Austin was still out on the frontier. Back of the Dillinghams and Woodwards were the Boones, Brandons and Newtons of the Carolinas and Virginia. Mrs. Dickson is therefore the product of some of the best blood of the old South, and is a woman of exceptionally broad culture and interests, her desires coming both front inheritance and association. The community in her opinion is what its citizens individually as well as collectively make it. When widowed by the death of her husband Mrs. Dickson continued her civic interests, and has been an unceasing worker in matters pertaining to the success and welfare of Shreveport. She was elected for three years to serve as regent of the Caddo Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and after serving one year was elected state regent, for a term expiring April 1, 1925, three years being the allotted time for any one to serve in that position. Two out of the three elections gave Mrs. Dickson a unanimous vote. She had the honor of being the president of the Parents-Teachers organization of the Travis Street School of Shreveport, the organization of this association having been effected there. During the World war Mrs. Dickson was district chairman of the Y. W. C. A. for the Fourth District of Louisiana, the only district to go over the top in the state. She is a past regent of the Eastern Star and chairman of the Beta Chapter, Delphian Society. Mrs. Dickson was honored by selection of the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce to go to Mexico City in June, 1924, as a delegate to the international Trade Conference. From that trip she brought back a notable collection of archeologica1 remains illustrating the life of some of the prehistoric people of old Mexico. Mrs. Dickson as state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution used the full force of her position and influence to incorporate into the permanent program of activities of the Daughters a vital interest in child welfare and the raising of educational standards of the state, including work in the direction of broadening of school facilities that would wipe out illiteracy and the strengthening of all agencies that would promote clean movie picture exhibitions and strengthen other forces for enlightenment and progress.

Mrs. Dickson is also a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy. She is an active participant in church work, and a member of the Christian Church worshipping with the King's Highway congregation of Shreveport. She organized and for eight years served as president of the Berean Bible Class.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, Volume 2, pages 332-333.