The Dickey Family
Samuel Dickey, II (1730-1794) came to America after being born in Northern Ireland. He initially settled in East Nottingham before marrying in 1759 to a local family of prominence in Lower Oxford and acquired a 260 acre parcel.
"The Dickey family was, by 1800, Nottingham's premier family in an academic, agricultural and industrial scene. The family favored abolition and played a role in founding today's Lincoln University."
- Mark Ashton, A Chester County History
The Hopewell Mill
In 1816, Samuel Dickey, III (1769-1836) and his brother Colonel David (1776-1831) formed a business S. J. Dickey and Brothers to sell cotton spun at their mill in Hopewell.
"This industrial operation supported a variety of allied shops including blacksmiths, machinists, wheelwrights and carpenters. Company housing was erected for the mill workers as a means of securing reliable employees who produced not only cotton yarn but finished cotton products. By 1835 there were two cotton mills located at Hopewell and a papermill, trading as S.J. Dickey and Brothers. The family acquired nearby farms to produce food for the community and for export. It adopted fertilization of crops using the latest scientific techniques and developed a seed drill patented in 1849. The Dickey operation can be said to represent the beginnings of “commercial agriculture” in America. A butter machine was developed which was reported to produce 400 lbs. of butter an hour in 1854. The family’s political power is demonstrated in the fact that the town of Hopewell was chartered as an independent municipality.: By the 1850s the Dickeys were economically and politically southern Chester county’s 'first family.'"
- Mark Ashton, A Chester County History
Hopewell Academy
The school was founded and was operated by Jesse C. Dickey, who had a passion for teaching since the young age of 21. He found a connection with Colonel David by marrying his youngest daughter, Margaret. In 1846, Jesse purchased the former property of his father in-law where he enlarged the buildings and opened the Hopewell Academy.
The Octoraro Bank
It was the first bank built in Oxford, and it was chartered by Ebenezer V. Dickey (1821-1858), who became it's first president. After his death, his son Samuel took over as the next president of the bank. During the Civil War, there was a fear that General Robert E. Lee and the Confederates will invade the small towns of Pennsylvania after the Battle of Gettysburg. As a precaution, Samuel kept a train waiting to transport the gold and silver deposits of the Octoraro Bank east should the Confederates invade Chester County.
The National Bank of Oxford succeeded the Octoraro Bank.
Bibliography
Cope, Gilbert and Henry Graham Ashmead. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, Volume 1. (New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1904): 153-154.
Futhey, John Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881): 522.
Goshorn, Robert M. "Chester County and the Civil War." History Quarterly 12, no. 3: 46–58. https://www.tehistory.org/hqda/html/v12/v12n3p046.html.
"Hopewell Historic District Historical Marker." Explore PA History. Accessed June 27, 2025. https://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php%3FmarkerId=1-A-36.html.
"Indian Hannah and the Stargazer's Stone." BIMMERPOST.com. Accessed June 27, 2025. https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=894453.
Lordi, Joseph A. and Dolores I. Rowe. Around Oxford. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2009):15.
Oxford, a Representative Pennsylvania Borough, Its Growth, Its Resources, Its Commerce, Its Manufactures, Its Financial Interests, Its Prospects, Etc., Together with Its Wide Awake Industries and Business Houses. (Oxford: The Oxford Press Print, 1894): 55.
"(Some of) The First Stove Advertisements in America." A Stove Less Ordinary (blog). October 26, 2013. https://stovehistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/some-of-first-stove-advertisements-in.html.