Title: Fred G. Dickerson Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1847-1922

Creator:

• Dickerson, Fred G., 1868-1922

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 171

Quantity: 1.0 c.f. (2 archives boxes and 1 flat box)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Miscellaneous papers of Dickerson, a Chicago inventor, manufacturer, and trustee of Lawrence College, who was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin. Fragmentary documentation about his inventions consists of advertising, a printed and a draft catalog for the Dickerson Milk Filler, engineering drawings, and a notebook about an inclined stair climber. Limited correspondence hints at development difficulties with his invention of the first practical method of canning evaporated milk, his most successful invention. Additional correspondence includes letters and legal documents about a partnership with J.M. Patterson of the Illinois-Georgia Pecan Company, and brochures, newspaper articles, and correspondence concern his advocacy of labor management cooperation, the “Chicago Way” to avoid strikes, in 1915. The career of Dickerson's father, Henry J. Dickerson of Appleton, also an inventor, is documented by broadsides about his process for welding steel patented in 1868, correspondence with individuals who leased the process, diaries about his later career, and agreements with William Johnson of Milwaukee to manufacture the “Dickerson shutter worker.” The collection includes plans for the family cottage at Three Lakes, Wisconsin, additional correspondence about the Dickerson and Porter families, and an assortment of high quality paper ephemera concerning Appleton, its churches and schools, and Lawrence College and its musical organizations.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0171

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Fred George Dickerson, mechanical engineer, inventor, businessman, and trustee of Lawrence College, was the son of Henry J. Dickerson and Harriet Amelia Porter of Mayfield, New York. Henry Dickerson was, in turn, the son of Mary Ann Hart and James Dickerson of Gloversville, New York and later of Appleton, Wisconsin. The Henry Dickersons were the parents of three sons, two of whom died in infancy. The youngest, Fred George, was born on June 4, 1868, ten years after the family located in Appleton.

Harriet Porter Dickerson died in Appleton in 1908 at age 80. Her obituary lists Fred George as her only survivor and because the collection documents the fact that Henry Dickerson was then living in Niagara Falls, it is likely that the couple were separated or divorced. Fred George Dickerson attended Lawrence College, graduating in 1893, and he continued to be involved with collegiate musical groups after his graduation. Later he became a member of the college's board of trustees. About 1900 Dickerson settled in Austin, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He married Rena Reed, and they became the parents of Fred Reed Dickerson.

About 1910 Dickerson successfully patented a machine for canning evaporated milk, the so-called Dickerson Milk Filler. Fred Reed Dickerson later stated that his father was a practical inventor, who also was responsible for the invention of a pin clock, a folding car seat, and a pecan sheller, but that only the milk filler was financially successful. Fred George Dickerson died on September 10, 1922.

The Fred George Dickerson Papers are a small, incomplete collection arranged alphabetically by subject and document type. Although Fred George Dickerson lived in the Chicago area for most of his adult life, the collection contains substantial information about his youth and family background which was rooted in Appleton, Wisconsin and on the Dickerson and Porter families. For students of invention and technology the collection includes useful information about a family of inventors and their successes and failures. Included are family correspondence, fragmentary business papers of both Henry and Fred George Dickerson, local history ephemera, scrapbooks, writings and notes. A portrait of Fred Dickerson has been filed in the Visual Materials Name File.

Family correspondence, which makes up the majority of the collection, consists of letters and postcards from friends, family, and other associates. Many of these letters are to Harriet from members of her family in the east. Still others were written to Fred from relatives and friends after her death. Several interesting letters and a blueprint concern the construction of a summer cabin at Three Lakes, Wisconsin. Business papers document the family's inventiveness and both Henry and Fred G. Dickerson are represented. Although limited and fragmentary, the correspondence concerning Henry Dickerson has considerable interest because of its early date, its basis in Wisconsin, and his apparent lack of success. Through letters, financial notes, and broadsides, the papers document the way in which he attempted to market his method for processing steel (patented 1868). Additional correspondence and legal documents concern the manufacture of an 1875 invention, the “Dickerson shutter worker,” by William Johnson of Milwaukee. Legal documents, deeds, and insurance policies document his ownership of the Appleton Novelty Works and acquisition of real estate, and they hint at his financial problems. The collection also contains his 1907 and 1910 diaries. In 1907 Henry resided in Niagara Falls, but by 1910 he had removed to Canada and his business address in that volume is listed as the Dickerson All Metal Pulp Screen Co. His daily notations about work on the development of machinery involved in paper manufacturing are informative and readable.

The career of Fred Dickerson is also sporadically covered by the general correspondence, but one entire folder covers his association with J.M. Patterson's Illinois-Georgia Pecan Company and the Paper Shell Pecan Growers Association. This association included Dickerson's investment in company lands as well as development of a nut harvesting machine invented by him. Information about Fred's inventions is scattered elsewhere in the collection. There are engineering drawings apparently prepared in 1920 for a parts catalog, a list of machine parts and associated costs, a draft catalog (1912) and printed catalog “C” for the milk filler, and photocopied advertising brochures. One of the few pieces of correspondence on this machine is a detailed letter from the Helvetia Milk Condensing Co., marketers of Pet Milk, concerning their experimentation with Dickerson's machine. A scrapbook contains numerous examples of advertising blotters/calendars distributed by the Dickerson Company, 1914-1917, which contain scattered information about the company. (This scrapbook also contains information about the Schaeffer Manufacturing Company, a competitor in Berlin, Wisconsin.) About Dickerson's invention of a stair-climbing machine, the collection contains a notebook of sketches and calculations. This machine is thought to have been invented when his wife became incapacitated. A selection of miscellaneous writings includes a typescript essay, “How to Invent.” Also received with the Dickerson papers was an example of the pin clock he invented. This item (F59-69) is housed at the Historical Society's Stonefield Village historic site.

Additional material of interest about Fred Dickerson--although not concerning his inventions--is a folder on his support for “the Chicago Way” to avoid labor unrest. Included are two brochures detailing his ideas, comments about the plan received from many fellow Chicago businessmen, designs for a promotional stamp, and copies of articles about the plan by Porter Kent which appeared in The Unionist. The majority of this labor material dates to 1915.

A highlight of the collection is high quality paper ephemera primarily documenting Appleton and its churches and schools and Lawrence College and its musical groups. Included are programs, tickets, advertising, and business receipts, all foldered as loose items. A related scrapbook contains numerous items about Lawrence College as well as posters for several national tours of the Mandolin Club for which Fred Dickerson was the manager-director. Also of interest here are Lawrence College programs dating from 1859 to 1862 which reveal the activities of Henry Dickerson as an early student at the college. Additional ephemera includes an 1886 contract for the purchase of a Singer sewing machine signed by Mrs. Dickerson, material about Dickerson's later civic activities in Chicago, and mailings about the Wisconsin Colleges Associated Campaign, a joint effort by nine private Wisconsin colleges (including Lawrence) to raise funds in Chicago in 1919.

Acquisition Information

Presented by F. Reed Dickerson, Bloomington, Indiana, 1959. Accession Number: M59-239, M59-129-2

Processing Information

Processed by FGH class, 1976, and by Carolyn Mattern, 2002.

	Business papers
	Fred Dickerson
Box   1 Folder   1	Engineering drawings, circa 1920
Box   1 Folder   2	Illinois-Georgia Pecan Company, 1914-1921
Box   1 Folder   3	Milk filler, circa 1914
Box   1 Folder   4	Henry Dickerson papers
	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   5-6	Family, 1847-1922, undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Post cards
Box   1 Folder   8	“Strikes Avoidable, the Chicago Way,” circa 1915-1918
Box   1 Folder   9	Deeds
Box   1 Folder   10	Diaries of HJD, 1907-1910
	Ephemera
Box   1 Folder   11	Appleton Methodist Episcopal and Congregational churches
Box   2 Folder   1	Appleton miscellany
Box   2 Folder   2	Appleton public schools
Box   2 Folder   3	Appleton business receipts
Box   2 Folder   4	Lawrence miscellany
Box   2 Folder   5	Lawrence musical groups
Box   3 Folder   1	Scrapbook, circa 1859-1901
Box   2 Folder   6	Membership cards--Chicago
Box   2 Folder   7	Singer lease of Harriet Dickerson, 1886
Box   2 Folder   8	Wisconsin Colleges Associated Campaign mailings, 1919
Box   2 Folder   9	Family history and genealogy
Box   2 Folder   10	Family history clippings, 1900-1917
	Notes and notebooks
Box   2 Folder   11	Auto log, undated
Box   2 Folder   12	Stair-climber, undated
Box   2 Folder   13	Miscellaneous material
Box   3 Folder   2	Plans for cottage in Three Lakes, Wisconsin
Box   2 Folder   14	Scrapbook of trade cards and business material
Box   2 Folder   15	Writings and humor, 1905-1921