. . . writing from Norwich, Chenago Co., N. Y., says: “A visitation of one of the district schools in this town, the other day, revealed the singular circumstance of a child and his mother, and his grandfather being all in attendance as scholars! The grandsire is David Dickson, a steady, laboring man of 63 years of age, who in his youth enjoyed no school privileges, and grew up unable to read or write. His son, Peter Dickson, went to the wars last fall in the 89th regiment, and is now at Hatteras Inlet under Burnside. Peter left behind him his wife, Martha, age 26, and his son, Perry William, age four years. Martha could read, but not write; and the desire of corresponding with her soldier husband without borrowing a stranger’s pen, stimulated her to go to school. Of course she took Perry. The old patriarch, David, found work scarce and home lonesome in their absence, and followed suit.”
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 5, 1862, p. 2
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