Thomas
Walter Dickson and his wife, Galveston T.
"Vessie" (Smith) Dickson, came to Santa
Anna and worked there as a blacksmith
before buying a large farm southwest of
town. Born September 5, 1853, in
Coweta County, Georgia, he was too young
for service in the Confederate Army, but
lived in the path of the Civil War forces,
both blue and gray. Many times the
family heard the thunder of guns in large
or small battles, and the father, John F.
Dickson, is believed to have served in the
army of the South. Thomas W. and
Vessie had seven known children: Ora C.
(1884), married O. M. Black in Coleman in
1905; John Lester (1886) in Coleman
County; Etta (1888) married Claude Bishop
in 1904; Eva Lee (1890) married F. A.
Bailey in 1904; Walter Morris (1895);
Annie (1896) married Mr. Barker; Iva T.
(1898) married T.R. Umbarger.
Thomas and Vessie
Dickson were among the throngs of
Southerners who came to Texas after the
Civil War, settling first in Bell County,
near an aunt and uncle, Nancy Herron
(Dickson) Freeman and her husband, John
Taylor Freeman. But Coleman County
was known to have a very healthful climate
and fine land, and their years here were
prosperous ones.
The death of
Thomas was in Corpus Christi in 1923;
Vessie died in Santa Anna, in the Santa
Anna Hospital in 1942.