“With the early progress and development of Geology of Canada, the name of Andrew Dickson will always be honorably associated.”
(The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art. July, 1855)
Andrew Dickson (1797 - 1868), the person most associated with the founding of the Village of Pakenham in Lanark County, is principally remembered today as Sheriff Dickson, as he held the position of Sheriff of Bathurst District for a ten year period from 1842 to 1852. At that time Bathurst District encompassed what today is Lanark County, Renfrew County and Ottawa west of the Rideau River. Perth was the most important town in Bathurst District, while Ottawa (then known as Bytown) was a small lumber town. An article on Sheriff Dickson published in 1915 in the Almonte Gazette points out that “when Perth was the judicial, educational and social centre of this part of Ontario, it was a striking sight to see Sheriff Dickson in his shrieval garb, armed, astride his fine horse, taking prisoners from Bytown, to the district gaol in Perth, the prisoners being also mounted on horses and chained to the sheriff.”
Andrew Dickson had a varied career. He was born in Scotland in 1797 and came to Canada in 1819 to take charge of a lighthouse in Nova Scotia. He came to Perth in 1821 and then settled in Fitzroy township in 1823 as a farmer. In 1831 he purchased the mill, river rights and the land in Pakenham township where the Village of Pakenham now stands. ‘Dickson’s Mills’ began to grow. For a number of years Andrew Dickson carried on a lumbering and mercantile business, and later added a carding mill. He held a shop license for the sale of spirituous liquors. He built a lumber slide and charged a toll on all logs passing downstream. He operated a limestone quarry on his land. He set up grinding wheels powered by his mills to polish limestone slabs that were used locally as ornamental stone. He was Dickson’s Mills first postmaster. He built Dickson’s Mills first church. He laid out the village plot for Pakenham, and registered it under the name of Pakenham. In 1835 he was appointed Commissioner of the Courts of Bequests for the District of Bathurst. In 1842 he was appointed Sheriff of Bathurst District. In 1852 he resigned as sheriff to accept the position as Inspector of the Provincial Penitentiary, when he moved to Kingston, Ontario. In 1858 he was appointed Warden of the Reformatory Prison of Lower Canada and moved from Kingston to Isle Aux Noix. In 1860 he returned to Pakenham where he resided until his death in 1868.
In addition to his business interests, Andrew Dickson was a hunter, curler, and Lieutenant-Colonel in the militia. He was also a noted amateur geologist, was elected a member of The Canadian Institute in 1854 and was a member of the Historical and Literary Society of Quebec. Invariably, articles referring to Andrew Dickson refer to him as Sheriff Dickson, and stress this part of his career. It is as a geologist that he should also be remembered.
In a book published in 1925, entitled
Pioneer Sketches in the District of Bathurst, Andrew Haydon devotes Chapter VII to Andrew Dickson, Sheriff– A Pioneer of Pakenham. Haydon mentions that “The distinguished geologist, Sir William Logan, was among Mr. Dickson’s personal friends.” Haydon also mentions that “On the Dickson farm at Pakenham here had been opened during the building of the railway a fine quarry of limestone.... in this quarry he had discovered fossil remains in plenty and of a variety for which the much-coveted Bigsby medal had been founded and granted by the Royal Geological Society of England, while yet, outside of Mr. Dickson’s discovery, the fossil was yet almost unknown to the scientific world.” Haydon also mentions that Andrew Dickson exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1855 specimens of wood, specular iron, marble, shell marl and sandstone.
The article published in 1915 in the Almonte Gazette mentions both that “ He was one of the most enthusiastic and intelligent geologists in Canada, and succeeded in making a fine collection of specimens. In this connection he rendered material aid to his personal friend, Sir William Logan, in tracing and developing the mineral resources of Central Canada.” and that “A few years ago, when Dr. Ami, the Ottawa geologist, returned from a business trip to the British Museum, he reported that some of the specimens there were known as the "Dicksonia" specimens, in honor of the subject of this sketch.”
An online article entitled Mining in Lanark County mentions that “Sheriff Dickson lectured on geology for the benefit of the Mechanic’s Institute.” I assume these lectures were at Perth’s Mechanics Institute (established in 1844) which in 1903 became the Perth Library, though they may have been given at the Carleton Place Library Association and Mechanics’ Institute (founded 1846). (Mechanics' Institutes were used as libraries for the adult working class, also provided lecture courses, and in some cases contained a museum.)
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The original sources provide more information on Sheriff Dickson’s contributions to the understanding of geology in what is now Ontario. His help was acknowledged by the leading Canadian geologists of his era, including Sir William Logan, Elkanah Billings and Sir John William Dawson.
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On at least three occasions Sir William Logan thanked Andrew Dickson.
First, in his Report of Progress for the year 1845-46, when he discusses the geology of the Ottawa River and some of its tributaries, he mentions that “Ascending the Chats Lake, we made an excursion up the Mississippi River to Pakenham, where
Mr. Dickson, the founder of this thriving village, who takes an interest in geological phenomena, was so obliging as to accompany me to several spots in the vicinity, and to supply me with a small collection of specimens illustrative of the rocks of the Township;”
Logan, W.A., 1847, Geological Survey of Canada,
Report of Progress for the year 1845-46, at page 9.
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Second, in answer to the question “Do you think any material advantage might be derived from voluntary assistants?” asked by the Select Committee on the Geological Survey of Canada, William Logan answered in 1855 that “There can be no doubt of it. In localities in their own neighbourhood, I have received valuable information from various persons, to whom I have been careful on all occasions to render public thanks. Among those that have favoured me are Mr. Abraham, Dr. Wilson, the Rev. Mr. Bell, Mr. Billings and Mr.
Sheriff Dickson . An excellent vein of geological knowledge seems to run up the Ottawa.”
Harrington, Bernard J., 1883,
Life of Sir William E. Logan , John Wiley & Sons, New York, at page 288.
Report of the Select Committee on the Geological Survey of Canada– Minutes of Evidence,
The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art, 1854'5 , Vol. III, pages 250 - 256 at 254.
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Third, Sir William Logan acknowledges Sheriff Dickson’s help in the acknowledgments to his book the Geology of Canada, where he mentions that “ we are indebted to
Mr. A. Dickson of Pakenham for various facts relating to the Post-tertiary formation, and for specimens from this, and from the Lower Silurian rocks.”
Later in the book Sir William Logan relies on Andrew Dickson when he states: “The latter appears to form an isolated patch on the Chazy, in the neighborhood of Dickson's mills in Pakenham ; where, as has already been stated, it is brought, by a dislocation, against the Calciferous, on the south side. Near the mills, the Birdseye and Black River formation yields very large masses of Columnaria alveolata, and some of its beds abound with great orthoceratites, the chambers of which have occasionally been found by
Mr. Dickson to hold large quantities of petroleum.”
Logan, W.A., 1863,
Geology of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from Its Commencement to 1863; at Pages x and 175
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Elkanah Billings, Canada’s foremost paleontologist, singled out Andrew Dickson by naming the fossil Agelacrinites Dicksoni after him.
Agelacrinites Dicksoni, Billings
Plate VIII. Figs. 3, 3a, 4, 4a
“I have dedicated this species to
Andrew Dickson, Esq., of Kingston, C. W., one of the best workers in the field of Canadian geology.”
Billings, E., 1858,
On the Asteriadae of the Lower Silurian Rocks of Canada, Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains, Decade III, at page 34.
Below I’ve provided the plate from Canadian Organic Remains showing the fossil.
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Sir John William Dawson, who from 1855 to 1893 was professor of geology and principal of McGill University in Montreal, mentioned and relied on Andrew Dickson in a number of publications. Below I’ve provided quotations from three of his publications.
II. Fresh-water Shells in the Post-Pliocene Deposits
“... I have been favoured in the past summer, by
Andrew Dickson, Esq., with specimens of land and fresh-water shells from the bank of a brook emptying into the Mississippi, a tributary of the Ottawa, two miles below Pakenham Mills. .. They were found in sand and gravel containing Tellina Greenlandica, and which
Mr. Dickson thinks to be undisturbed tertiary deposit.”
...
III. Land Plants.
“I am indebted to
Andrew Dickson, Esq., for the opportunity of studying a large number of nodules containing plants, collected by him at Green's Creek, on the Ottawa.”
Dawson, J. W., 1859,
Additional Notes on the Post-Pliocene Deposits of the St. Lawrence Valley; Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Volume IV, Article III, at pages 36 and 37.
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“In my examinations of these plants [found in the Leda clay at Green’s Creek in Ottawa], I have been permitted to avail myself of the considerable collection in the museum of the geological survey of Canada, and also in the private collections of Mr. Billings, of Prof. Bell at Queen’s College, and of
Sheriff Dickson of Kingston.”
Dawson, J. W., 1868,
The Evidence of Fossil Plants as to the Climate of the Post-Pliocene Period in Canada, The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, New Series, Volume 3 at page 70
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“Of this nature are the beds at Pakenham, examined by the late
Sheriff Dickson, and which I was informed by him, are arranged as follows:
Sand and surface soil.... 10 feet
Clay...10 feet
Fine gray sand (shells of Valvata, &c.)...2 inches
Clay...1 foot
Gray sand, laminated (Tellina Greenlandica)...3 inches
Clay...8 inches
Light Gray Sand (Valvata, Cyclas, Paludina, Planorbis and Tellina)...10 inches
Clay...1 foot, 2 inches
Brown sand and layers of clay (Planorbis and Cyclas)...4 inches
“The fresh water species are peculiar to this locality, and the only marine shell is Tellina Greenlandica, a species now found farther up in our estuaries than most others.
Mr. Dickson informs me that a similar case occurs near Clarenceville, about four miles from the United States frontier, and at an elevation of about ten feet above lake Champlain.
... In farther connection with these facts, and in relation also to the question why marine fossils have not been found west of Kingston,
Mr. Dickson informs me that fossil capelin are found on the Chaudiere lake... and at Fort Coulonge lake..”
Dawson, Sir J. William, 1893,
The Canadian Ice Age, Being Notes on the Pleistocene Geology of Canada, Montreal, William V. Dawson, at pages 58-59.
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It is also worth noting that Sheriff Dickson’s fossil collections were relied on by the officers of the Geological Survey of Canada as late as 1905. Dr. H. M. Ami, Assistant Paleontologist to the Geological Survey of Canada, compiled a list of fossils found within the Perth Sheet in Eastern Ontario, and mentioned:
BLACK RIVER FORMATION
VII Pakenham, Ontario.
Collection of the late Sheriff Dickson
1. Bythotrephis (Chondrites) succulens, Hall.
2. Stromatocerium rugosum, Hall.
3. Tetradium fibratum, Safford.
4. Columnaria Halli, Nicholson.
5. Orthis tricenaria, Conrad.
6. Actinoceras Bigsbyi, Stokes.
TRENTON FORMATION
IX. Pakenham, Ontario, from the
collection of the late Sheriff Dickson
1. Licrophycus minor, Billings-
2. Solenopora compacta, Billings.
3. Prasopora oculala, Foord.
4. Prasopora lycoperdon, Vanuxem. (= P. Selwyni, Nich.)
5. Agelacrinites Dicksoni, Billings
6. Glyptocrinus ramulosus. Billings.
7. Pleurocystites squamosus, Billings.
8. Lingula quadrata, Eichwald, as of Billings.
9. Lingula riciniformis, Hall
10. Plectambonites sericeus, Sowerby.
11. Rafinesquina alternata (Conrad), Emmons.
12. Rafinesquina detoidea, Conrad.
13. Dalmanella testudinaria, Dalman.
1 4. Murchisonia bellicincta, Hall.
15. Fusispira subfusiformis ? Hall.
16. Orthoceras sp.
17. Endoceras proliforme, Hall.
18. Asaphus platycephalus, Stokes
19. Calymene senaria, Conrad.
20. Ceraurus pleurexanthemus, Green.
Ami, H. M., 1904,
Preliminary lists of fossil organic remains from the Potsdam, Beekmantown (Calciferous), Chazy, Black River, Trenton, Utica and Pleistocene formations comprised within the Perth Sheet (No. 119) in Eastern Ontario, Geological Survey of Canada, Annual Report for 1901, Volume XIV (New Series), Part J, Report No. 790, at pages 84J-85J.
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Perhaps the greatest praise for Andrew Dickson appeared in an article entitled
Elementary Geology that was published in the July, 1855 edition of The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art. The article talks about the passion for geology in Ottawa and up the Ottawa valley, the Silurian Society that had formed in Ottawa, and the untimely death of Hugh Miller, a self taught Scottish geologist who was held in high esteem in Great Britain. It continued:
“We do not require to search long or wide for a Canadian Hugh Miller ; one not known to the public by his writings or published discoveries, but rather by a most honourable mention in the report of the Director of the Canadian Geological Survey; by a unique collection of palaeontological monuments of Silurian age ; by unsurpassed mineralogical proofs of the hidden wealth of the Ottawa valley; by a patient and laborious study of Canadian rocks when a Geological Survey of the country was hardly thought of, and by the fact that many of these investigations were carried on, and fossil and mineral treasures discovered and hoarded up, during years of wild and romantic life in the uninhabited parts of Canada and the trackless regions of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territory; trusting to his rod and his gun for the support of life, and, like Hugh Miller, exchanging all day-dreams and amusements for the kind of life in which men " toil every day that they may be enabled to eat, and eat every day that they may be enabled to toil." With the early progress and development of the Geology of Canada, the name of
Andrew Dickson will always be honorably associated.“
Anonymous, 1855,
Elementary Geology, The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art, 1854'5 , Vol. III, pages 285 - 287 at 286.
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Years after Andrew Dickson’s death, stone from his quarry was used to construct the five span stone bridge at Pakenham, shown below.
The photo is from Library and Archives Canada (MIKAN 3318277) and was taken about 1910 by Augustus L Handford.
Ann P. Sabina (2007) reports that Andrew Dickson’s quarry is now inactive, but that fossils are abundant in Ordovician Black River limestone in the inactive quarry and in rock exposures nearby. She reports that the fossils include corals, cephalopods, trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans and cystoids. She gives the following directions to the quarry: “The Pakenham quarry is on the face of a hill at the east end of the bridge in Pakenham; it is on the east side of Lanark County Road 20 at a point 5.8 km southwest of its junction with Highway 17.”
Sabina, Ann P. 2007,
Rocks and Minerals for the Collector: Ottawa to North Bay and Huntsville, Ontario; Gatineau (Hull) to Waltham and Témiscaming, Quebec. GSC Miscellaneous Report 48
The Ontario Geological Survey lists two abandoned quarries with the name Pakenham Quarry in the Township of Pakenham. As the Village of Pakenham falls within lot 11 of concession 11 of Pakenham Township, the following may be the UTM co-ordinates for Andrew Dickson’s quarry:
Pakenham Quarry
Lot: 11, Concession: 11
UTM Zone: 18
UTM Easting: 399528.012
UTM Northing: 5020897.084
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Christopher Brett
Perth, Lanark County
