DICKEY, JOHN MCELROY: 1789-1849.
John McElroy Dickey , son of David and Margaret Stephenson Dickey, was born in South Carolina in 1789. Going to Kentucky with his family, he studied with a cousin, the Rev. William Dickey, and afterwards at a school opened by the Rev. N. H. Hall at Hardin's Creek Church. In 1813 he married Nancy W. McCleskey.
He was licensed to preach by the Muhlenberg Presbytery in 1814 and moved to Washington, Ind., in 1815. To support his family he supplemented his pastoral work by farming, teaching, surveying, and other occupations. After his first wife's early death, in 1818 he married Margaret Osborn Steele.
He organized several churches in southern Indiana, becoming known as "the father of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana." After many years of ill health he died on Nov. 21, 1849.
Information from the Indiana State Library.
- A Brief History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of
Indiana. Madison, Ind., n.d. [1828].
