522 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Most of the fine flocks of Ohio trace their origin to William E. Dick- 

 inson. He had sheep that produced as fine wool as any of the imported 

 Saxons, while their fleeces were heavier. He was not entirely carried 

 away by the Saxon craze, nor was he discouraged by the earlier indif- 

 ference to the Spanish Merino when the failure of manufactures injured 

 their value and their standing. When they were at their lowest ebb 

 and perfectly degraded in the estimation of the public, and suffered to 

 be adulterated and destroyed in every manner, he gave to them the 

 strictest attention, and retained them entirely pure. For many years 

 he supplied all the flocks of the West with full-bred rams, and it was 

 believed by competent judges that, in 1825, Mr. Dickinson could select 

 from his flock individual rams and ewes in as great number and with 

 fleeces as fine as could be found in any flock of like, extent in the coun- 

 try, and he obtained this gratifying result principally by his own good 

 management. His ambition was to produce an animal of a remarkably 

 fine fleece, combining to a good degree weight and length of fiber. 



William E. Dickinson was born in Virginia in 1779, and in 1807 

 removed to Steuben ville, Ohio, where, in 1816, he entered into the firm 

 established in 1814 by Mr. Bezaleel Wellsfor the manufacture of woolens, 

 subsequently known as the Wells & Dickinson factory. Previous to 

 this copartnership, or about 1812, for Mr. Dickinson said, in 1826, that 

 he had "for the last fourteen years been zealously rearing and improv- 

 ing," he founded a flock of sheep which became very noted, furnished 

 beginnings for many Ohio flocks, but whose early history is imperfectly 

 known. In a letter written in May, 1826, he said that the foundation 

 of his flocks came from a purchase made of James Caldwell, an exten- 

 sive breeder of Merinos in JSTew Jersey, who purchased "the cream of 

 almost every importation from Spain during the invasion of that coun- 

 try by the French," and again that this flock, "as long ago as 1806, on 

 the male side, was selected from one of the finest flocks in Saxony (the 

 Muller ram), crossed upon the finest Spanish ewes of Col. Humphreys." 

 There is evidence that before the Caldwell flock came into Mr. Dickin- 

 son's possession he owned other sheep, which, however, for the iwesent, 

 we pass by untU we follow the disposition of the Caldwell flock, as 

 shown by undoubted facts. Caldwell turned his flock over to Samuel 

 L. Howell, in New Jersey, in 1815, and between that time and the sum- 

 mer of 1821 it was removed from New Jersey to Ohio. That it was 

 taken to Ohio before 1822 or 1823 will appear from a sale made from it 

 which was published in the American Farmer in 1826. 



In the summer of 1821 John McDowell and his brother Alexander 

 purchased of Mr. Dickinson 100 Merino ewes for $1,600, and 1 ram for 

 $25. This ram was the product of Columbus, who was the product of 

 the ram imported by Mr. Muller, and one of Col. Humphreys' ewes. In 

 1826 this flock had increased to 400, and was valued at $6,000. 



In 1825 Mr. Dickinson had 2,000 sheep, admitted to be equal to any 

 in the United States, of which 10 Merino rams, wintered by Adam Hil- 



