Joseph Benjamin Dickson

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

As one of the foremost men in the coal industry, that business which supplies the sinews to the whole manufacturing interests of the country, Joseph Benjamin DICKSON occupies a position of influence and responsibility. A man who has given evidence of his sterling integrity and an unusual force of character he commands the respect not only of his associates but of the entire public. So entire is the confidence of a large section of that part of the state that his influence is a potent factor in any movement to which he subscribes his name.

Joseph B. DICKSON was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1861, and from his earliest years was brought into contact with that industry to which he has devoted his life. Scranton is in the heart of the anthracite coal mining region of Pennsylvania, and the products of its mines are shipped to all parts of the civilized world. Here in his home town he received his early education, attending at first a private school of the place, and afterward going to a boarding school at Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. For about three years after this he attended Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania.

The details of the business career of Mr. DICKSON show him to be a man who has given himself up to business with an enthusiastic devotion. His first experience was gained in the employ of A. S. Swords, which position he entered upon in 1881. In 1883 he became a partner in this firm, and after three years of this arrangement a reorganization was effected, the firm becoming known from 1886 as SWORDS & DICKSON. He is now a partner in the firm of DICKSON & EDDY. All of these companies were in the coal business, dealing with the wholesale article. From 1900 to 1903 he was president of the Scranton Coal Company, having been during the years 1889 to 1901 president of the Johnson Coal Company. Since 1900 to the present time he has given his energies to the duties of president of the Price Pancoast Coal Company. As an organizer he has few equals in the coal industry, and his executive abilities are no less marked than his infinite patience in matters of detail. Immersed in these large interests he has little time for outside business, but he is a director of the First National Bank of Morristown, New Jersey, having held this office for ten or twelve years. In his political preferences Mr. DICKSON is an adherent of the Republican party, but he has never cared to hold public office. He is a member of the Lafayette Chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He belongs also to the Union League Club of New York, to the Morristown Club, to the Morris County Golf Club, to the Scranton Club, to the Whitehall Club, and to the Automobile Club of America. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church.

Mr. DICKSON married at Honesdale, November 28, 1862, daughter of Coe F. and Mary Augusta (CORNELL) YOUNG, her father being general manager of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, distinguished as a business man of high ability and character. Their children are: Horace G. Young, Alice, Edwin, Mary and Augusta.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)